Charles Fey was born Augustinus Josephus Fey in Germany, in the Bavarian town of Vohringen, on the 2nd of February, 1862. He travelled widely after leaving his home as a teenager, before finally settling in the United States of America in San Francisco. Charles is known as the inventor of the Liberty Bell slot machine, the world’s first true slot machine. The initial demand for his early machines was huge, so much so that he was unable to manufacture them fast enough to meet demand. It wasn’t long before competitors such as Herbert Mills of Chicago jumped into the gap in the market and began producing rival machines with the now standardised inclusion of fruit symbols in the reels.

Slot Machines are now a ubiquitous part of casinos and establishments around the world, with electric machines becoming the norm from 1960s onward. Fey’s influence and ingenuity has carried over into the 21st century where slot machines have seen a resurgence as part of the online gaming industry that is now worth 66 billion dollars globally, with many leading platforms providing a wide range of slots games with free spins in order to attract new customers and retain returning players. This modern phenomenon began with Charles and his probing mind as a youth as he sought frontiers beyond the alpine valleys and entrenched poverty he was born into.

Charles was born of Karl and Maria Fey, he was the youngest sibling of fifteen children. They were a very large and poor family with resources stretched thin. His father held down two jobs to make ends meet, one as a clerk for the local administrative authority and the other, his primary vocation, as a teacher and sexton at Neu-Ulm cathedral. From a young age, Charles would take the railroad that had recently come to Vohringen, to explore the surroundings of Bavaria.

The prizes were usually just sweets, drinks or cigars.It all changed thanks to Charles Fey's invention. Taking inspiration from other slot machines, Fey created the 'Liberty Bell'. It was a simple slot, with three reels and six syhearts and the Liberty Bell). Naturally, there was only one payline. 1895: Charles Fey Makes the Liberty Bell Car mechanic Charles Fey is widely regarded as the inventor of the first mechanical slot machine, although there is quite a bit discrepancy surrounding the year he made the first cast iron Liberty Bell. It was the first slot machine of. History of the Charles Fey’s Slot Machine The San Francisco mechanic Charles Fey is commonly known as the man who invented slot machines, however, the exact time when it happened is not clear. Charles, who was a mechanic, invented this machine to entertain its customers who visited the shop to get their vehicles repaired. Shortly after the introduction of the Liberty Bell slot machine, Charles Fey opened up the Slot Machine Factory in 1896. This was because of the high interest from players and the unique appearance of this “one-arm bandit,” which had three reels spinning and one pay line. Many, however, believe that Charles Fey completed the first slot machine in 1895. The original machine was of course much simpler mechanism. It consisted of three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols, Horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a bell (Liberty Bell), from which this machine took its.

Fey’s first encounter with mechanics and engineering was when, at the age of 14, he visited his brother during a school vacation who worked at the Munich Plow Company, a farm tool factory. At 15, in 1877, Fey left Germany and travelled to France. There he landed a job working at a manufacturer for intercom equipment in Amiens. After several years he then travelled to London on the recommendation of his employer, and there spent 5 years working as an apprentice at a British shipyard, working on nautical instruments.

At the age of 23, Fey set sail for the United States. He stayed initially in New Jersey with his Uncle’s family, though this was not to last. After a matter of weeks Fey made his way West to California where he settled in the liberal city of San Francisco, home of today’s big tech entrepreneurs but then famous for its gambling and night-life. Charles quickly found some work as a machinist, something that played well to his professional skill-set. At this time Fey met and became romantically involved with Marie Volkmar, herself a second generation German emigrant.

What looked to be one of the happiest chapters in Fey’s life quickly hit a major obstacle when, in that same year, he received a medical diagnosis of terminal tuberculosis. Though doctors gave him one year to live, Charles Fey resolved to fight the illness and travelled south to the hotter and drier climes of Mexico in order to recover. Returning to San Francisco, he began working as an instrument maker for the California Electric Works and went on to marry Marie Volkmar in 1889. The happy couple had a daughter, Alma, shortly after. She was followed by two more sisters, Elsie and Marie and a brother, Edmund in the following years.

It was during this time Charles met friends and future business partners, Gustav Schultze and Theodor Holtz. The three shared a mutual fascination for the mechanics of the coin operated slot machines which were very popular in San Francisco at the time. These early, primitive slot machines simply enabled the user to drop a coin in the slot to operate them, and required attendants to supervise their use and pay out winnings. In 1895, after initial successes in devising automatic payout slot machines, Fey and Holtz quit their jobs and founded a company named Holtz and Fey Electric Works. Numerous iterations followed before the arrival of the first recognisable modern slot machine, with spinning reels, sequential stopping, coin payouts and the one armed bandit crank. It was known as the Liberty Bell and was wildly successful in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, with the rise of prohibition and gambling laws, the invention was unable to be patented, which led to many imitations. Competitors were said to have marvelled, however, at the level of sophistication behind Fey’s machines, a testament to his mechanical ingenuity. Charles continued his innovation through-out the years, improving the design of his machines right through the 1920s and 30s. Charles lived to a ripe age and didn’t retire until he was 82. That same year, he fell ill with a bout of pneumonia and died in his San Francisco residence, on November 4th, 1944.

Chelsea Gomez·Published · Updated

The World’s First Slot Machine

The world today is completely different to how it was a century ago; we have computers, aeroplanes, sports cars, and the Internet. Most of what we have and use today was created and developed over the last few countries, and very little of what was invented a hundred years ago remains in the same form.

This doesn’t apply to everything, however, and for the most part, the simple slot machine, whether it’s the physical machine or the digital counterpart has retained much of the same mechanics that the very first one used a century in the past.

Slots – Then And Now

Slots are a huge part of the entertainment and gambling industry in the modern world, and account for more than 60% of the visitors at any given casino.

Thousands upon thousands of slot machines exist all over the world, and their venture into the online world has only made them that much more popular.

Every single one of these machines can be traced back to a single slot that was invented at the end of the 1800s by a man named Charles Fey.

And while they may be different in a lot of ways, as these machines of the past didn’t offer mini games or a casino slots bonus, they still have a lot of the charm that Fey’s invention had all those years ago.

How The First Slot Began

It all started with Charles Fey, who was a businessman who had moved to the United States earlier in his life. He dabbled in jobs until he found work at Electric Works. They began experimenting with different types of games, until Fey eventually decided to design a machine that allowed players a chance at winning prizes.

It was simple in many ways, but the designed was revolutionary at the time, and it wasn’t long before people starting taking notice.

How The Machine Worked

Fey’s slot was made up of three slots and used symbols consisting of diamonds, hearts, and spades, the inspiration of these taken from playing cards. Alongside these were horseshoes and the Liberty Bell, which were seen as symbols of good luck at the time.

At first, he was not able to get a patent on his invention due to the laws of the country during the period, but he amended this by renting the machine out to various places. This worked until new government rules came into place that allowed for the legal but regulated usage of gambling machines.

Charles Fey Slot Machine Plans Free

The Slot Machine Became More Popular By The Day

With his machine patented, Fey opened up his first factory to allow mass production of the slot, and while it still took a while to take off, by the time Fey had reached the age of 82, his slot machine had changed the world as we know it.

Charles Fey Liberty Bell Slot Machine

Slot machines became the staple of all casinos from the 1950s onward, and featured prominently in the casinos of Las Vegas. His legacy continues to live on, and as old as the slot is, it still looks to have a bright and promising future.