Restoration Complete of rare Vendit Machine

[JoJoCopper]

I recently found this machine located in an old warehouse in KC. The guy that sold it to me said it has sat in that same corner since he was a kid, which is well over 50 years. The machine was made by the American Vending Corporation, which was based out of KC, and is a conveyer type of vending mechanism, similar to the U-select-it that came out somewhere around the same time. AVC was a registered corporation in Kansas from March of 1946 to December of 1948. I cannot find anything past the 1948 date, so I don't know if the company changed names, moved out of state, or was closed completely. I did find the original patent, and the machine inventor was a guy by the name of Charles Holcomb Jr, and the original patent was filed in 1938, with a significant revision filed in 1943. Earliest nickel I found in it was early 1940's and the latest was mid-1950's. Couple that with the amount of sticky dirty residue I found all over the machine, and I would believe the story of it sitting in that warehouse. (The blue tape was obviously more recent from moving things around). It's hard to find much information on the company, but it appears one of their machines was featured in a June 1947 issue of Popular Science....but it was a book vending machine that was to be placed in airports and bus stations called a "Book-O-Mat". I don't know if the company decided to switch to book vending machines, or if they produced both at the same time, or even mass produced either at all, but given the short window in time that any information or pics are available, I am going to assume there were very few actually produced. I cannot find any information at all regarding the "Vendit" candy vendor itself outside of the original patent, and I can only a couple of pics of the Book-O-Mat vending machine. I have found very little on the American vending corporation or any of the principals outside of a mention or two of a couple of folks in the social pages of the KC Star. If anyone knows anything about the company or products, please let me know.