Coin Slot Location

Location
the introduction of their pointer wheel machine
named the Cuban Machine, which consisted of
three separately revolving arrows on a dial. If all
three arrows stopped on the same colour the
machine would pay out. In this sense one can find
examples which predate even this. However, the
connection becomes increasingly tenuous, and one
would be better placed to consider the design and
styling of the Puritan machine in order to propose
an alternative reason for the use of three reels.
The machine looks at first sight remarkably like a
cash register, in which case one might be forgiven
for mistaking the numbered reels as a sales tally in
dollars and cents rather than as a three figure
gambling combination. One is, in fact, witnessing
an early example of gambling machine deception,
whereby the spectator, and especially any
antagonistic legal authorities, can be fooled into
seeing it as a legitimate trading device rather than
an illegal gambling machine.
Trade stimulator
Despite its disguise the Puritan is historically
classified as a 'trade stimulator', in that it
incorporated no automatic payout. Its main
innovative feature, apart from its use of three
reels, was its use of a mechanical system whereby
every fifth or seventh coin played into the machine
was channelled into a separate compartment for
use either as a housepaid jackpot or as the
operator's percentage.
As with all successful machines it was soon being
widely copied and marketed by other rival
manufacturers.
Having now briefly examined the key
developments in America prior to the introduction
of the three-reel automatic payout 'slot' machine
in 1905 by Charles Fey, one can now safely
introduce it in some detail without fear of giving a
false impression of it. The machine consisted of a
rather drab cast iron cabinet resting upon claw
feet. It was operated by the insertion of a nickel
into a single slot which enabled the handle at the
side of the machine to be pulled down by the
player causing the three, ten stop, symbol
bedecked reels to spin. A perforated plate inside
the machine spun with each reel. The reels would
then stop in a consecutive timed sequence, and if a
winning combination was made the perforations
would line up so that metal fingers would project
through them so as to trip the coin slide for a cash
payout in nickels.
Despite the fact that the machine had an
automatic payout the reward chart on the front of
the machine listed drinks as the prizes. This was a
fairly standard ploy, adopted in order to deceive
the authorities in areas where gambling was illegal
into thinking that the machine was no more than a
trade stimulator, in that it seemingly gave awards
for merchandise rather than cash, and was
therefore legal. Another ploy that Fey reputedly
adopted was the use of a tax stamp.
Having used playing card suits as well as
horseshoe, bell, and star symbols on the reels, he
stuck a 2c tax stamp on each of his machines,
there being a Federal revenue tax on a pack of
playing cards at the time. This in effect allowed
the operator to further confuse the issue and
enable him to argue that even if the authorities
refused to accept the machine as a trade
stimulator that, by the addition of the tax stamp,
the machine was in conformity with the law, being
as much a game of chance as a game of cards. By
this time such artifices had become increasingly
common, and in retrospect it is evident the
automatic gambling machine has spent over half
its production life posing as something else.
Within this context even the name of a machine
became significant-witness the Puritan for
example-and to this end Fey again followed
earlier precedents by giving his machine a patriotic
name. He called it the Liberty Bell after one of the
greatest symbols of American independence.
Great setback
Fey placed the first of these hand built machines in
a San Fransisco saloon. It proved to be very
popular. As a consequence production at his small
workshop in Market Street was geared up to
making as many of these machines as would
satisfy the demand from his operator routes along
the Barbary Coast. However, within a year the
enterprise was to suffer a great setback. On the
morning of the 18th of April, 1906, the city of San
Fransisco was virtually destroyed by a major
earthquake followed by raging fires . Recording
the event in a somewhat romantic mood, many
years after the event, his grandson Marshall A.
Fey wrote:
"Within four blocks of Fey's shop five major
uncontrollable fires broke out. Later in the day all
hope of saving the area of Market Street was
abandoned. Charles Fey hastened to a nearby