As automated as they come

5. Cigarettes. In Poland we can no longer buy them from a vending machine because a legal act passed by the Sejm eliminated this thriving industry in just one sentence. But this does not ban a machine from making you a cigarette – so invented here in Poland, we have the automated cigarette production machine, which will fill paper tubes with tobacco, for the exclusive use of the purchaser (sorry I meant to say the commissioner). However, a Polish nicotine addict still has the option to drive off to Austria after running out of fags in the middle of the night. There cigarette vending machines have had an illustrious history ever since their introduction back in 1900. Of course only Austrians over the age of eighteen may use such machines these days and one’s eligibility is automatically checked on the basis of a credit card or a driving licence (in Austria both documents are chipped). 4. Beer. Recently, while I was in Munich I came across a rather curious machi