El Bumpo

El Bumpo is a pure mechanical (non-electric) pinball machine produced by the Pennsylvania Novelty Company of New Brighton, Pennsylvania in November 1931 -- placing it among the very earliest coin-operated pinball games, from before electro-mechanical components became standard.

Gameplay was simple: 10 balls for 5 cents, played on a compact wooden-cabinet machine measuring 36 inches long, 17 inches wide, and 40 inches high on its stand. The example on record has the number 1745 stamped into the wood at the top right corner of the playfield, though its significance is unclear.

Little information survives about El Bumpo's design, art, or theme beyond its basic mechanical construction. As an early representative of pure mechanical pinball from the dawn of the coin-op era, it remains a piece of interest for historians studying the game's origins, even though its exact rarity today is undocumented.