History of slot machines
The term “slot machines” was originally used for gambling machines and automatic vending machines, surprisingly. In the 20th century the trend was to use the term for only slot machines. The exact date of this is unknown. In addition to the term “slot machine”, slot machines were also referred to as the “one-armed bandit”. Another interesting fact is that, in Britian, slot machines were referred to as the “fruit machine”. Although slot machines have had many titles, slot machines have been around for a while.
Charles Fey
The guy that made the first mechanical slot machine, the Liberty Bell, was Charles Fey. It’s even more interesting that Mr. Fey was actually a car mechanic. He lived in Francisco. One could say that Francisco is the birth place of the original slot machines. If you want to see the original Liberty Bell slot machine you can visit the Reno, Nevada museum: Saloon & Restaurant.
Growth of slot machines
Slot machine sales exploded and Mr. Fey could not keep production up fast enough. Due to his success, other people began to copy his gaming machines. Arcade manufacturers started making knock off productions of the Liberty Bell slot machine. Herbert Mills, who owned an arcade company, started to produce his own rendition of the Liberty Bell slot.
How the original (antique) slots worked
Inside each cast iron slot there were three hoops called reels. Each reel had 10 symbols painted on it (the symbols are actually what makes antique slot machine very valuable). The old original slots had a lever that was pulled that spun the wheels. When the reels stopped, a jackpot was awarded if three of a one kind of symbol lined up straight and coins dispensed from machine.
Modern day slot machines
Slot machines today are very sophisticated electronic machines that still resemble the original Liberty Bell slot machine. Modern slots have expended to include video monitors instead of mechanical reels. Also, many mechanical moving parts have been replaced with electronics. The very first electronic slot machine was created by the Fortune Coin Company in 1975.