This is interesting, but it seems to assume that the reader knows what pinball was like before 1948. I don't. What was it like?

FTA:

> ... he borrowed a concept — the flipper — from a competitor."

So apparently most early pinball machines had no flippers.

I found a couple of pages with images of machines that date from 1940:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=11596

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=13783

And, indeed, I see no flippers. I guess these were entirely games of luck -- slightly more exciting versions of spin-the-wheel-and-win-a-prize.

But at least one had flippers. FTA:

> But instead of having six flippers in the upper playing field, he reduced it to two electrified flippers near the drain at the bottom, ....

and

> "What Steve did was revolutionize the game of pinball," said Larry DeMar, a video game and pinball designer and president of Leading Edge Design in Northbrook, Ill. "It now became a defensive battle."

I'm finding it difficult to figure out what this six-flipper machine might have looked like. Apparently the flippers were near the top, and the game was not defensive in nature. Does anyone know any more?

EDIT: Here is a page with pictures of Kordek's Triple Action game (the one that "stole the show" in 1948):

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/11/view/6969/pinball-in...