Editing Automat (section)

=== United States ===
[[File:20200729 0818-0820 CHESTNUT.jpg|left|thumb|150px|818 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, the site of the first U.S. Horn & Hardart Automat, pictured with original automat signage in July 2020.]]

The first automat in the United States was opened by food services company [[Horn & Hardart]] on June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St.<ref name="Automat-Restaurants" /> in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>"[http://www.14to42.net/36street2.html Horn & Hardart Automat, 968 6th Ave. between 35th & 36th Sts. (1986)]", 36th Street, [http://www.14to42.net/ New York City Signs -- 14th to 42nd Street].</ref> Inspired by Max Sielaff's automat restaurants in [[Berlin]], they were among the first 47 restaurants (and the first outside of Europe) to receive patented vending machines from Sielaff's Berlin factory.<ref name="Automat-Restaurants">[https://archive.today/20150316092501/http://cdm16038.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p268001coll12/id/6426/rec/58 Automat-Restaurants – '''AUTOMAT''' GmbH, 23 Spenerstrasse, Berlin, N.W. :: Trade Catalogs and Pamphlets] - [[OCLC]]</ref> The automat spread to [[New York City]]<ref name="Automat-Restaurants" /> in 1912,<ref name="thngofpa">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eOJNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6535%2C4112657 |work=Free Lance-Star |location=(Fredericksburg, Virginia) |agency=Associated Press |title=Automats become a thing of the past in New York |date=December 31, 1977 |page=12}}</ref> and gradually became part of [[popular culture]] in northern [[industrial cities]].

Originally, the machines in U.S. automats only accepted [[Nickel (United States coin)|nickels]].<ref name="Lui">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/6/2006_6_19.shtml 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020152554/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/6/2006_6_19.shtml 
 |title=Bamn! The Automat Is Back – Restaurant – Food & Drink 
 |last1=Lui 
 |first1=Claire 
 |date=<!--November/December 2006 Volume 57, Issue 6--> 
 |year=2006 
 |publisher=American Heritage Magazine 
 |archive-date=2007-10-20 
 |url-status = dead
 |access-date=2015-03-15 
}}</ref> A cashier sat in a change booth in the center of the restaurant, behind a wide marble counter with five to eight rounded depressions. The diner would insert the required number of coins in a machine and then lift a window, hinged at the top, and remove the meal, which was usually wrapped in waxed paper. The kitchen was located behind the machines and used to replenish them from the rear.<ref>{{cite web |date=January 30, 2007 |title=Landmarks Preservation Commission |url=https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2192.pdf |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission}}</ref>

Automats were popular with a wide variety of celebrity patrons, including [[Walter Winchell]] and [[Irving Berlin]]. The New York automats were also popular with [[unemployed]] [[Songwriter|songwriters]] and [[Actor|actors]]. Playwright [[Neil Simon]] called automats "the [[Maxim's]] of the disenfranchised" in 1987.<ref name='Times-1991' />

The automat was threatened by the arrival of [[fast food]] restaurants, which served food over the counter with more payment flexibility than traditional automats. By the 1970s, the automats' remaining appeal in their core urban markets was chiefly [[nostalgia|nostalgic]]. Another contributing factor to their demise was [[inflation]], which caused an increase in [[food prices]] and made the use of coins inconvenient in a time before bill acceptors were common on vending equipment.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}

At one time, there were 40 [[Horn & Hardart]] automats in New York City. The last one closed in 1991, when the company had converted most of its New York City locations into [[Burger King]] restaurants. At the time, customers had been noticing a decrease in the quality of the food.<ref name='Times-1991'>{{cite news | first=James | last=Barron | title=Last Automat Closes, Its Era Long Gone | date=April 11, 1991 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/11/nyregion/last-automat-closes-its-era-long-gone.html | work =The New York Times | access-date = 2009-07-16 }}</ref><ref name='AP-1991'>{{cite news | title=New York's Last Automat Closes | date=April 11, 1991 | work= St. Petersburg Times | url =https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iZwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6820,42067&dq=automat+1991 | agency =Associated Press | access-date = 2009-07-16 }}</ref>