Slots History
by
John
Grochowski
Let’s go back to the late 1800s to begin the Slots History for this
lesson at the Learn, Play
Slots program.
There
was gambling then, of course. There seemingly always
have been games of chance. Sheep’s knuckles fashioned into dice have
been found
at sites dating to the Roman Empire.
But we’re not going that far back in slots history. We’re
going only to the
beginnings of slot machines. And in the late 1800s,
there were a
proliferation
of coin-operated gaming devices. There were machines that used cards as
symbols, and machines with huge vertical color wheels, in which you’d
bet your
money on which color the wheel would stop.
Finally, in the late 1890s of slots history, there was the
Liberty Bell.
Developed by Charles Fey in San
Francisco, the Liberty Bell was
where the machines,
as we know them began.
Whether you’re
playing online or
offline, with three
spinning reels or with five on a video screen, the Liberty Bell is
where the
games we play today begin.
Play Instant Slot Games
at Casino Tropez
If you were to see a Liberty Bell machine today --- and
there are a few still in existence --- the first thing you’d think
would be
“slot machine.” There would be no wondering what this old device was
about.
It’s instantly recognizable as the type specimen of the games we play
today.
Fey’s creation was the first recognizably modern version.
Symbols on its three spinning reels included horseshoes, stars, spades,
diamonds, hearts and bells. It was so popular for slots history that
for a time all
three-reelers were referred to as ``Bell
machines.''
And while it was the first of the modern versions, the
Liberty
Bell was not the first of the Bell
machines. Fey had an earlier creation, the Card Bell. It was a gaming
device,
too, but it didn’t use horseshoes, stars, bells and such. It used
pictures of
playing cards as its winning symbols. It was popular, but it was the
Liberty
Bell that captured the imaginations of the first generation
of fans.
With a casing made of sheet metal on a brass frame, the
Liberty Bell was durable and attractive. There was no neon, flashing
lights or
sound effects, but it was a game that was played by dropping a coin in
the slot
and pulling the handle to start the reels, just as players have been
doing for
more than a century.
Moving slots history
forward, today it’s often a push of the
button or a click of
the mouse that starts those reels spinning, but the essentials of the
game are there since Fey began it all in the 1890s.
Fey was a German immigrant with a background making
instruments for electrical supplies companies. He set up a workshop in
his
basement in Berkeley,
Calif.,
and it was there that he created many early machines.
Free! Play your favorite slots at
Paddy Power
Monopoly, Wheel of Fortune, 5X Pay, Double Diamond, Price is Right,
Jeopardy, Deal or No Deal, Unicorn and Texas Tea.
Popular
Classic Slots online
Other manufacturers quickly followed with their own
versions, and slot machines quickly spread through the United
States, even in
jurisdictions that didn’t
permit gambling. Many early versions were used as trade simulators by
merchants,
and paid out golf balls, chewing gum, candy, cigars and more. If a
merchant
wanted to pay out something more than golf balls to customers with
winning
spins --- well, that was between the merchant and the customer, if they
could
get the law to look the other way.
One frequent prize listed on machines in saloons was free
drinks. Some versions of the Liberty Bell listed a pay table with a top
jackpot
of 20 free drinks for three bells. Some poker machines paid as many as
100 free
drinks for a royal flush. That’s a lot of shots of Old Redeye.
Along the way of slots history, many of the symbols we still
see today came
into use and just stayed, even if the reasons for the
symbols being there faded with time. The fruit symbols still
used today come to us from flavors of chewing gum dispensed by
the
Liberty
Bell Gum Fruit slot made by Herbert Mills in Chicago
in 1910.
Not all the gum symbols survived to
modern use--we see no
current machines that use spearmint leaves as a reel symbol.
Three-reelers frequently use bar symbols
--- single bars, double bars, triple bars. That comes by way of the Gum
Fruit
slot, too. The bar symbol still in use today is identical to the Bell
Fruit Gum
logo used as a symbol used on early slot machines.
The only
difference is that
nowadays the white lettering on the black bar says ``BAR,'' whereas it
used to
say ``BELL FRUIT GUM.''
The bar also bears more than a passing resemblance to the
Wrigley arrow still used on packages of Spearmint and Doublemint gum.
Some
early slot machines dispensing Wrigley's gum used the Wrigley arrow as
a
symbol.
You probably don’t think of Charles Fey or the Liberty Bell,
of golf balls and free drinks, of Fruit Gum and bar logos, when you
play today.
They’re present nonetheless, a slot history tradition that
continues
whenever the reels
spin.
From
Slots History, we look at the History of Progressives
OR
Return
to Learn Slots, Play Slots 1
Gambling
Teachers Home
|
