The History of the Slot Machine

Few men have created such a worldwide phenomenon as Charles August Fey.  He was born in the quaint village of Vohingen in Bavaria in the year 1862. August was the last born child in a large family with 15 other siblings. Indeed he had no knowledge of it at the time, but he was to become the universally renowned father of the slot machine.

Cometh the man, cometh the slot machine

Young August was never comfortable living under his father’s rules. At the tender age of 14 he absconded and joined his brother Edmund in the city of Munich. It was there that August learned his true passion for mechanics. And to leave the controlling lair of his father, the impressionable August had already set his sites on America. But his journey had several layovers – one in France and another in the United Kingdom. By the time he arrived in New York City some 5 years later, he felt fully ready to embrace his new life.

Fey’s family were not going to be of any help to him, for they left for Germany soon after his arrival. Young August then made his way to the West coast and settled in San Francisco at the age of 23, working as a mechanist. The years between 1885 and 1887 provided a grim prognosis for the creative Fey. Doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis and considered him a terminal case. But Fey proved them all wrong. His resilience was a harbinger of much to come: Fey recovered, married, had four children and adopted a new American name: Charles August Fey.
The machine that changed lives forever

The mechanist within him was working a furious pace to invent something. This he did in 1894 when he created the first fully functional paying slot machine. This 3-reel, 10 symbol (spades, bells, hearts and horseshoes) wonder was similar to the work of Shultze who created slots – Shultze’s slots did not pay out cash though.  Fey’s invention was to be crowned the Liberty Bell – an enduring brand of slot machines that are the poster child of his creations. Fey didn’t work alone, he teamed up with Theodore Holtz and together they opened a company manufacturing slots. The second machine to be built in 1895 was known as 4-11-44 and featured a popular lotto game at the time.

By 1896 Fey set up a factory in San Francisco and gifted his partner Holtz his share of the electric business they opened up together barely several years earlier. Then Charles August Fey concentrated on manufacturing slot machines, and did so with gusto. Countless saloons placed orders and Fey simply could not keep up with demand. He employed the services of Herbert Mills from Mills Novelty Company. Now production was ignited and the Slot Machine roared to life. Tens of thousands of machines were produced, new symbols and more reels were added and the Operators Bell Machine was born.