Quisisana

[5] Automat is a loanword from German for automaton which was adopted from Latin automatus, originally borrowed from the Greek autómatos (αὐτόματος), meaning "acting of itself".

[6] After the introduction of the first automat in Berlin in 1895 and a demonstration of the technology at the Brussels World Fair in 1897, the concept soon expanded into other European cities such as Vienna in 1898 and Saint Petersburg in 1900 (Kvisisana [ru]), whilst its developers also purveyed their methods in the United States.

Horn and Hardart ordered more of the German equipment in 1905, '07, and '12,[10] each time having it refined by their chief engineer John Fritsche,[11] before eventually devising their own automat machines.

[3][12] In the United States, customers paid for the meals by exchanging larger sums of money for change at a register[13] without a number display, supposedly keeping diner's spending habits discreet.

[14] In Austria, a system of tokens existed for the restaurant on Kärntner Straße (potentially alongside cash as well) with the inscription "Automaten Buffet, Quisisana" on the front face and "Centrale Wien-I, Kärtnerstr.