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The Story Behind the Inventors of the Slot Machine

The slot gambling machines have a long and rich history that goes back to several centuries. Everything began with a mechanical slot gaming machine and has since advanced into online slots that are advantageous as well as more available. Notwithstanding, the bonus rounds of the slot games were not generally as we probably are seeing them today.

As we all know for ages, the “Liberty Bell” was the first mechanical slot gaming machine that was ever made in history. Nonetheless, there were bits of gossip that few models and prototypes were created before the creation of the Liberty Bell gaming machine. If you want to know more about the background story of the very slot such as Mega Joker that you play today, read ahead and be amused.

Charles Fey the Inventor of the First Slot Machine

Charles Fey was the inventor of the first slot machine on which the modern slots are based on. Charles Fey was born on the 9th September 1862 in Bavaria and he was a mechanic from San Francisco. Charles lived and worked in London and France before moving to New Jersey at 23 years old. He chose to live in San Francisco after his travel to everywhere in the US.

In 1885, he began working at Western Electric Works. Although after some time, he established his own company (Liberty Bell) in association with Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze and Theodore Holtz. The main focus of their company was manufacturing telephones and electrical gear which eventually leads to the creation of the first original slot gambling machines.

Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze Creates the First Model

In 1893 Fey’s accomplice Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze designed the “Horseshoe” slot gambling machine. His machine was the first actually to incorporate an automated payout framework which was not functional. However, the slot machines required a dealer to hand over the winning payouts, which were typically tokens. So, that gambling machine was designed with many flaws that didn’t bring any success.

Charles Fey Discloses the Liberty Bell Slot

In 1895, only after two years of the prototype, Fey himself created an upgraded version of the Horseshoe gambling machine. Moreover, this one paid out coins instead of tokens. As expected, this newly updated edition of slot machine turned out to be incredibly mainstream. Three years after this, he designed what we call the first and original gaming machine, which was known as the “Liberty Bell” gaming machine. In those days, the Liberty Bell gaming machine was the most notable in the US and later the world. Players in the early time needed to land three liberty bells in a row to win a prize of 50 pennies.

Features of Liberty Bell Slot Machine

The first Liberty Bell gaming machine was very basic which included three reels and five symbols. The included symbols were of horseshoes (likely from the first model which was the Horseshoe gaming machine), jewels, hearts, and spades from the card symbols, and a bell that reflects the slot machine. As we already said, landing three bells on the reel would give a winning payout.

Connection of Liberty Bell to the Modern Slots

Right up ’til the present time, you will see that numerous slots include bells as a common symbol. This is to show gratitude to Fey’s company (Liberty Bell) and also as an ideal symbol that represents the classical slot. Moreover, numerous slots still use the card symbols and are likewise still loved by many slot players.

Liberty Bell’s automated payout framework which was invented by Charles Fey was unique, but truly soon he was unable to take it further. He couldn’t patent his inventive piece of work as betting was viewed unlawful.  Very soon other slot developers took his work and advanced it till modern slot gaming came in its present form.