Slot Gambling Machine Created by Charles Fey – After graduating from primary school, Charles Augustinus Fey, then 14 years old, chose with his older brother, Edmund, to work in an agricultural implement factory in Munich, Germany, in 1876. The teenager, born on February 2, 1862, left his village in Vohringen, District Neu- Ulm, Bavaria, Germany to help improve the economic life of his elderly parents.
Charles Fey is the youngest of six children, the son of Karl Josef Gustav Johann Fey and Maria Vollman. His father is the headmaster and spokesman of the Ecumenical Cathedral in Neu-Ulm. His income is not enough to support his family. Johann nyambi as clerk of the village council and overseer of meat.
The Fey siblings left for Munich by train. Charles Fey was trained until his ability in the field of mechanics was very skilled. But soon, he only worked for one year. At the age of 15, Charles Fey went to France. It was done as a rejection of compulsory military service in the army of the Reich, united Germany. One of his reluctance was because the Reich military was dominated by Prussians, not Bavarians.
Arriving in France, it didn’t take long for Fey to get a job. He was accepted to work in the intercom manufacturer’s factory located in Amiens, Picardie. Because of her skills in work, Fey was recommended to move to London, England. He was offered an apprenticeship in the instrument department of a British shipyard in 1880.
In the city nicknamed The Smoke, Fey not only improved her ability to tinker with mechanical equipment systems. There he also deepened his English skills to become proficient. For almost five years Fey worked and saved money. Until finally he decided to migrate to the United States, a dream country that is also facing an industrial revolution.
In 1885, Fey set foot in New Jersey, USA, at the age of 23. He met his mother’s younger brother, Martin Vollman, who had previously emigrated from Bavaria since 1880. At his uncle’s house in the Hoboken area, Fey stayed for six months. After discussing with his uncle, Fey decided to go to San Fransisco, California.
He felt confident that with the talent of expertise in the field of mechanics he could easily get a job in a city that is indeed an industrial and financial center. Upon arriving in San Francisco, Fey initially worked as a train driver’s assistant. He enjoyed the job, especially after meeting the girl he adored, Marie Christine Volkmar, who is also of German blood.
But Fey lost her job and her love due to suffering from chronic tuberculosis. He left his monotonous job as a machinist and his lover for Mexico. In the land of the hot Sombrero Hat, Fey lived alone until the mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria in her lungs disappeared.
As soon as he recovered, he remembered his lover in San Francisco. Fey enthusiastically returned to meet him and proposed. At the same time, he also met two fellow German immigrants who worked as foremen at the California Electric Works power grid company, namely Theodor Holtz and Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm.
Both people invited Fey to join the electricity supply company in San Francisco. Thanks to those two new friends, especially Theodore Holtz, changed Fey’s fate further. The two innovated a phenomenal machine in the world of gambling, creating the first slot or jackpot machine.
As reported from Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Indian Country To Day , Charles Fey was later known as the first creator of a slot machine or jackpot or game machine nicknamed the ‘One-Handed Bandit’. His work inspired more modern slot machine modifications like today, such as slot online gambling.
Actually in 1890 there was already a game machine called Horseshoe made by Schultze. The forerunner of the slot machine was widely used by the owners of cigar shops, bars, and barber shops to attract customers. They pay the game with money to spin some picture symbols in the playing cards. The prize is a coupon that can be exchanged for a glass of beer or a cigar.
Fey and Holtz who had left the California Electric Works company then studied the tool system. They innovated to modify the tool to be more modern. How the tool can make payments by automatically issuing coins or money.
Fey and Holtz then collected the initial funds to realize his dream in 1894. The two then established a company called Hotlz and Fey Electric Works at 39 Stevenson Street, San Francisco. In the basement of a home in the Berkeley area, Fey day and night researched, designed, and made the Horsesheo machine into a slot machine with a more innovative 4-11-44 lottery game.
Fey changed it with three cylinders or discs with picture symbols, where if a certain picture symbol matches it will win and receive a payment of US$ 5. The game that Fey designed is operated by inserting coins and automatically generates coins as well, not coupons or tokens that are exchanged for a glass beer or other merchandise. This becomes more interesting for people.
Since then, Fey and Holtz succeeded in producing the slot machine. But soon Fey sold his shares in the company Holtz and Fey Electric Works. The money from the sale of the shares was made to establish his own company called Charles Fey and Company. At that time, Fey was working on a new slot machine program, namely Draw Poker, a cash payment poker slot machine.
He no longer designs and manufactures it in the workshop under his house. He moved the workshop to the third floor of the building located at 406 Market Street, which is the heart of financial business in San Francisco. In 1898, Fey designed the Card Bell slot machine, a three-reel, staggered-stop machine with automatic payouts.
The slot machine uses a spinning reel that is activated by a lever, where the spinning of the reel will feature a line-up of symbols/pictures when the reel stops. A year later, in 1899, Fey further modified his Card Bell slot machine. He replaced some symbols with stars and bells to create the revolutionary Liberty Bell slot machine.
He named his new slot machine Liberty Bell in honor of the symbol of the independence of the United States. The machine has three reels with a lever on its right side. Liberty Bell has 10 symbols on each reel and 10 stops that allow 1,000 different combinations. In addition to stars and bells, each reel also features symbols of horseshoes, spades, diamonds, and hearts.
This slot machine is designed to return the coins inserted into it as much as 86 percent. Liberty Bell will pay 50 cents when three bell symbols are aligned. These slot machines are more popular than poker machines at all counters in cigar shops, barber shops, and bars. Fey named his slot machine Liberty Bell or Operator Bell, and some even named it One-Handed Bandit.
“San Francisco was legal for slot machines from 1894 to 1909. He made that machine, a colored wheel machine. He did it very well. He made more money with that than the power supply business,” Marshal Fey, grandson of Charles Fey told Indian Country To Day in 2011.
The Liberty Bell or One-Handed Bandit slot machine was very popular until 1907. Until finally other manufacturers appeared who imitated Charles Fey’s work, such as Herbert Mills from Chicago. Mills’s slot machine was also named the Liberty Bell which added to the popularity of the device throughout the country. Slot machines are installed everywhere, from cigar shops, barbers, bars, brothels, casinos, hotels and other entertainment venues.
However, in 1910, the state of Nevada banned the use of slot machines, followed by California in 1911. However, since the 1930s, Nevada has become the only state to legalize gambling and liquor. Slot machines are back in full swing installed in a number of casinos, including the Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas owned by mafia boss Bugsy Siegel.
“This is amazing. The thing about slot machines is you don’t need to know the game. Your chances are very bad in blackjack (cards) or dice if you don’t know the game. It’s different from slot machines,” said Marshall again.
Later, slot machines underwent modifications, as Raymond Moloney did through his company, the Bally Manufacturing Company in Chicago in 1932. He created the Ballyhoo Pinball machine which only needed 1 cent to play. They also produce automatic dice machines and Bally Baby slot machines.
Innovation and modification of slot machines continued between the 1970s and 1980s. Bally launched the first video slot machine for the first time in 1982. And now the slot machine has become the most popular online game around the world.
But anyway, Charles Fey became very rich from the profits and royalties of the creation of the Liberty Bell slot machine. But that contrasts with his family who are embarrassed by his success in creating a skill machine that people use to gamble.
“My mother will not let anyone or even our friends know that it was my grandfather who invented the slot machine. That was bad enough, but after gambling spread across America, he became famous for his discovery,” said Marshall Fey.
