I was fascinated by automats when I first read about them in the book “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” A NY Times article discusses a museum exhibit on automats and its accompanying book. Fueled by the nickels of new legions of white collar workers and immigrants who could not speak English and therefore could not order at a restaurant, the automat prospered in the early 1900s and handily survived the Depression. But the nickel slots trapped the business into 5 cent coffee for too long. They did not want to go to ten cent coffee, so they took a loss on one nickel coffee for many years. The last New York automat closed twelve years ago. In other NYC relic news, the New York subway token is being retired.