In 1957 Steve Darling (as in the Darling models), a Stork grad student, built the first PunchMachine with Karl Schuman (glass blower) and Karl Unch (a Stork grad student). This original design worked off a solenoid switch which would turn on a pump when you set your cup down. This would send your drink through a maze of glassware and eventually through a siphoning funnel and into your cup.

Later Martin Frielander, the departmental electronics technician, added on many of the electronic and mechanical devices to the design. The Jacob's Ladder (high voltage zappy thing) and the Infamous Clock are accredited to Frielander. At this time, a piece of glassware was designed which allowed single serving portions of punch to be dispensed while the punch circulated continuously. One version of the Machine even had a model train that would circle around the base and run over various people. Frielander is also believed to have made the sign for the Machine saying (in German) "The entropy of the universe increases to a maximum."

Other people have also made contributions. Don Getzin (Breslow '60-'67) made the player piano style light board sign (Getzin Board) which says "HE WHO LIVES BY THE ELECTRON SHALL DIE BY THE ELECTRON." Even then, Breslow students would rather play with the PunchMachine than do their research.

The Machine was used every year at the annual winter show and always brought a line of people waiting to use it.

In 1987, after the Machine sustained a fair amount of damage during the renovation of Havemeyer Hall, the PunchMachine was not used to serve punch, but rather was merely decorated with Christmas ornaments and the punch served from a bowl.

The following year, Cindy Jenks (Bent Group) was able to get the Clock and the punch serving part of the Machine working again. She and the 1988 second year class also gave the Machine a new paint job and added additional glassware to the collection. Over the course of the following year, the Machine was again damaged by abusive construction workers, this time so severely that the 1989 class decided not to bring the PunchMachine out.

When the PunchMachine was dragged out in December 1990, none of the remaining components was working, and all of the glassware, except for a fountain designed by Tao Guo, had either been lost or stolen. It took many hours of work, shared between Nik Willmore (Katz Group) and John Koh (Breslow Group), to clean the contacts repair the insulating paper and replace the over thirty light bulbs that had been damaged to get the Getzin light board working. The Jacob's Ladder was reconnected and new electrodes and a glass shield were made. A new piece of glassware for dispensing punch was designed by Fred Kummer (glass blower) and John Koh. Nik Willmore, in a great expenditure of effort and creativity, added the mechanical thingy that drives the Teddy Bear with the Blinking Eyes and the Waving Arm and the Spinning Space Shuttle. Restoration of the PunchMachine would not have been possible without the creativity and generosity of Fred Kummer and the financial and moral support of Professor Len Fine, who paid for a new pump and some glassware.

For the 1991 winter show Fred modified the glassware so that it would dispense punch at a faster rate. Fred also added the Roundbottom Flask Fountain and the Glass Mouse. The PunchMachine committee headed by Biliang Zhang (Breslow Group) also designed and built the Dry Ice Smoke Machine.

For the 1992 winter show Ruo Xu (Breslow) designed and built the Bubble Machine to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Machine. In 1993, the Ice Tower for chilling the punch was designed and installed under the direction of Mike Acquavella (Breslow).

In 1994, the second year class added the mesmerizing Water Wheel, conceived by Steve Dong (Breslow) in collaboration with Fred Kummer and Ruo Xu. To celebrate the Lion's rise to solid football mediocrity, the Spinning Columbia Penant was added (replacing the Spinning Space Shuttle - the shuttle is now being launched from the smoke machine). Lastly, in an attempt to revive the Getzin Board, Hongbin Fang (Bent) and Ruhong Zhou (Berne) spent several hours cleaning the contacts and checking the wiring and lights.