Progress

The Progress, manufactured by Gee Bee Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois, in December 1933, represents an early entry in the development of pinball. As a Pure Mechanical (PM) pinball machine, it comes from a period when manufacturers were still experimenting with coin-operated games and gravity-driven mechanics.

Detailed gameplay features of the Progress have been lost to history, but its mechanical simplicity is notable -- Pure Mechanical (PM) pinballs like this one relied on gravity and spring-loaded mechanisms rather than any powered components. The machine's layout, art, and theme have faded into obscurity, leaving behind only limited documentation of what it looked like in its heyday.

The Progress dates from the nascent pinball industry of the 1930s, alongside early manufacturers such as Bally (founded 1931) and, later, Williams. While specific details about its design or artwork are unknown, the Progress remains a piece of pinball's evolutionary history from the pure-mechanical period that preceded the electromechanical (EM) machines that came to dominate subsequent decades.