In 1894, Charles Fey invented the Liberty Bell, the world's first slot machine, featuring bells on reel drums. At roughly the same time, New Yorkers Sittman and Pitt developed a sort of poker machine, with the cards represented on the drum reels.
Atonement author Ian McEwan has told aspiring young authors not to be afraid of offending readers with their writing amid a rise in the use of 'sensitivity readers' to comb through books to remove sensitive material.