Will Probably Have to Wait For It.

Woodville Examiner, Volume 3, Issue 281, 3 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Will Probably Have to Wait For It.

An inventive genius has conceived an automatic scheme for serving meals in restaurants, which, we presume, will be adapted to hotels as soon as perfected for restaurant service. The invention consists of a rotary moving table containing a series of shelves, upon which is placed everything on the bill of fare, from soup to tooth-picks. The movable portion of this table is made to pass the diner once a minute, and as it passes he helps himself to whatever he may wish. Just think what a panorama to place before a hungry man! What a “picnic” for the “ small boy ” with large eyes and small stomach 1 Imagine yourself looking along down the moving of the shelf-table, with your eye fastened on some dainty dish, waiting for it to arrive, when—confound it 1— your neighbor, two seats away, snatches it from the shelf 1 It will be a table of surprises and disappointments. It is to be driven either by steam or other power, as circumstances may warrant. Should the “power” get excited, or run away with the machine, there would be an interesting time for the diners. It might be quite entertaining to see the cuisine skipping past at a Melbourne Cup gait, but when the centrifugal force got the better of things, there would be an alarming shower from the outer side of the circular table, and the air would be streaked with soup, fish, roast beef, entrees , &o. Lest the fraternity of hotel waiters be frightened over this invasion of their profession, we assure them that it will be some years before the new table service will be generally introduced.