The Slot Machine was invented in Charles August Fey's Laboratory at 406 Market Street right here in San Francisco! He developed the three-reel automatic payout "nickel-in-the-slot" machine, the Liberty Bell, in 1899. When ga
ming machines were banned a few years later, he changed his three-wheelers to dispense gum and candy. The classic fruit symbols such as cherries, oranges and lemons represented flavors and the gum wrapper became the jackpot bar.
All that remains of Fey's presence in San Francisco is a small brick monument with a bronze plaque, about a block from the site of his lab. The Historic monument is on a pedestrian island at the convergence of Bush and Battery streets on the north side of Market. It's near the exit to an underground parking garage,opposite a small plaza containing the Mechanics Monument.
