Liberty Bell Slot Machine plaque - San Francisco, CA - DSC06516

Charles Fey (born August Fey in

Vöhringen, Bavaria Vöhringen ( Swabian: ''Vehrenge'') is a town in the district of Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the Iller, approximately 18 km south of Ulm and 40 km north of Memmingen. It is in the Donau-Iller Region in Central Swabia ...

; September 9, 1862 – November 10, 1944) was a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning an ...

best known for inventing the

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

Career and invention

His father Karl worked as a sexton at the

Ulm Minster Ulm Minster (german: Ulmer Münster) is a Lutheran church located in Ulm, State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It is currently the tallest church in the world. The church is the fifth-tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a ...

cathedral and had fifteen children with Charles' mother Maria. As a teenager, Fey worked for a farming tool manufacturer, gaining his first skills, which heavily influenced his career. In 1877, Charles Fey moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to work there, and spent some time in England too, before leaving for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at age twenty-three, where his uncle lived in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

.Wohlers, Tony and Eric Schmaltz
"Charles August Fey."
In ''Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present'', vol. 3, edited by Giles R. Hoyt. German Historical Institute. Last modified March 25, 2014. Fey traveled all over the USA and settled in San Francisco, California where he started working at the Western Electric Works company in 1885. Later he started his own company together with Theodore Holtz and Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze: this company worked with electrical equipment and telephones. In the 1880s, slot machines required an attendant to make a payout, usually tickets or tokens. Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze's "Horseshoe Slot Machine" of 1893 was the first machine to include an automatic payout mechanism. In 1895, Fey invented a modified version of the Horseshoe that paid out coins; this machine became incredibly popular. Fey opened a slot machine workshop in 1896Charles Fey
at SlotsMachinesHistory.com or 1897. In 1898, he designed the "Liberty Bell Slot Machine," the most famous slot machine of its day. When three bells aligned, it paid fifty cents. Fey installed and managed his machines in saloons throughout San Francisco. Because gambling was illegal in California, Fey could not patent his device, leading to many competitors.

Personal life

, Fey met Marie Christine Volkmar (1866–1942), but their courtship was interrupted by illness. In the early 1880s, Fey had been diagnosed with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

; in accordance with scientific knowledge at the time, he moved to a warmer climate (Mexico) for a few years, before returning to San Francisco for a series of creosote treatments, which were successful. He married Marie in 1889. The couple had three daughters and one son. During this time, Fey changed his name from August to Charles, supposedly because he did not like the nickname "Gus." After settling in San Francisco, he stayed there except for a brief spell in Mexico, to recover from a bout of tuberculosis in a warmer climate.

References

External links

Nevada State Museum Fey Slot Machine Virtual Exhibit
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fey, Charles 1862 births 1944 deaths People from Neu-Ulm (district) German emigrants to the United States 20th-century American inventors Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park

Career and invention

Personal life

Further reading

References

External links