Charles Fey (February 2, 1862 or February 2, 1861–November 10, 1944) was a San Francisco mechanic

Mechanic

A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...

 who is best-known for inventing the slot machine

Slot machine

A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...

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Family

Charles’s family was very large: he was the youngest of 16 children. As the family was very poor, he started working when he was 14 by helping his brother Edmund but he had to leave Germany when he was 15 because of his strict father and went to France where he worked as an instrument maker.

Life in the USA

When Charles Fey was 23 he had enough money to travel and decided to follow his uncle who moved to the USA, New Jersey. Charles traveled all over the USA and finally reached San Francisco, California where started working at Electric Works company. Later he started his own company together with Theodore Holtz: this company worked with electrical equipment and telephones.

1895 had become a year of the first slot machine’s birth: Charles Fey presented “Liberty Bell”; this machine was so popular and loved that such its popularity allowed Mr. Fey to open Slot Machine Factory in 1896.

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