Signal

The Signal, manufactured by Automatic Amusements Company of Los Angeles in August 1934, is an early single-player electro-mechanical pinball machine designed by Harry Williams, one of the pioneering figures of the pinball industry. As one of Williams' early designs from this period, it reflects the state of pinball technology before the invention of the flipper (which would not arrive until the late 1940s) -- play centered on skillful use of the plunger and the machine's mechanical scoring elements rather than player-operated flippers.

Little detailed documentation survives about Signal's specific playfield features, artwork, or theme. It was produced during the brief life of Automatic Amusements Company, which operated in Los Angeles from 1932 to 1935. Williams would go on to have a long and influential career in pinball design, and Bally later manufactured related games -- 'Signal (Jr)' and 'Signal (Sr)' -- under license from Williams, crediting him as designer per their agreement.

As one of the surviving examples of pre-flipper, West Coast-manufactured pinball from the 1930s, Signal offers collectors and historians a window into a formative and comparatively under-documented corner of the industry's early history.