While watching Soviet films, many people continue to feel nostalgic for the delicious soda that could be bought for a coin in a vending machine. But few people know exactly how they appeared. But their story is really interesting: despite the fact that Khrushchev brought the main technology from America, the key figure that made possible the appearance of the legendary machine guns on the streets turned out to be an ordinary Soviet student.
The first vending machines that dispensed carbonated drinks appeared on May 28, 1958 in the Juice-Water store, which was located in Kharkov on Sumskaya Street. Actually, this is not surprising, because it was the local factory that created these gadgets. The popularity of automatic weapons grew by leaps and bounds, and very quickly they became part of the street landscapes of most cities in the Soviet Union. However, their appearance was preceded by a very entertaining story.
In fairness, it is worth noting that the idea of adapting a unit called a saturator, which is designed to saturate water with carbon dioxide, was expressed to the needs of citizens even before the war. However, their real distribution was facilitated by the trip of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev to the United States of America. There he was shown dozens of examples of the development of Western industry, among which were the same soda machines. The first secretary of the party liked the idea so much that he wanted to bring it to life in the Soviet Union.
The development of automatic machines was entrusted to the specialists of the Design Bureau of the Kharkov plant "Mekhanolit", which specialized, in particular, in the production of refrigeration equipment for light industry. By the way, they had to create units for the sale of a range of packaged products, and not just vending machines for soda. But it was the latter that were supposed to replace the saturators already existing on the streets of Soviet cities, which required service from the seller.
That's just a problem: if the basic principle of operation of machines was Soviet engineers known, then, for example, the very system of gas saturation and water cooling had to be invent from scratch. It is not known for certain why this happened: Khrushchev did not bring enough technical documentation, or the Americans decided not to reveal all the secrets, but the fact remains - the incomplete technology of the machine required improvements. And, oddly enough, a fifth-year student of the refrigeration faculty of the Odessa Technological Institute of Food and Refrigeration Industry came up with it.
His name was Gary Gamulya, and he got to Kharkov at the Mekhanolit plant by distribution for undergraduate practice. The enterprising student not only decided to work on the problem on a par with other engineers, but also to devote his graduation project to this development. Gary Gamulya himself spoke about the beginning of his work as follows: “The principle of operation of the soda machine was basically known. It is necessary to fully automate all the processes of cooling and carbonating water, accepting coins and issuing a given dose of water and syrup into a glass or paper cup. A special task was the development of a fundamentally new efficient system for cooling and saturating water with carbon dioxide. The machine was supposed to work around the clock from April to October in the open air and year-round indoors in all climatic zones of the USSR.
And student Gamul coped with the task perfectly well, as evidenced by at least two facts: firstly, he defended his thesis in June 1958 for the highest score, and secondly, at the same time, the chairman of the diploma commission announced the content of the telegram that came from the Kharkov Economic Council: “Congratulations to Gamul G.D.! Soda machines "Kharkiv" were accepted by the state commission and recommended for mass production.
Vending machines for soda water turned out to be so in demand that it was no longer possible to produce them by the forces of only one production. Therefore, over time, they began to be manufactured at other factories, but no matter how their appearance changed, they were still designed on the basis of automatic machines "Kharkov" and equipped with refrigeration units, which were mass-produced at the Kharkov plant "Mechanolith".
Continuing the topic: Vending machines with Pepsi-Cola and cologne: how they tried to introduce trade without sellers in the USSR
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/201221/61602/