Lucky Strike (Steel Ball)

The Lucky Strike (Steel Ball), manufactured by the Lucky Strike Manufacturing Company of Baltimore, Maryland in 1932, is an early example of pre-flipper pinball design. Designed by Meyer Horwitz, the company's owner, it was an improved version of the earlier Lucky Strike (Marble), swapping marble balls for steel ones and introducing a new playfield. Horwitz was awarded design patent D087,748 for the coin-controlled game apparatus, filed February 10, 1932 and granted September 13, 1932.

The machine's coin-controlled gameplay mechanism let players insert five cents for ten balls, a straightforward pay-to-play format typical of the pin-game era before flippers were invented. As a pure mechanical, single-player game, it relied on gravity and pin placement rather than any powered mechanisms.

Little additional information about this specific machine's production numbers or original commercial performance has been documented. Nevertheless, its documented design patent and its place as an improved successor to the marble-ball original make it a notable piece for collectors and historians studying the earliest pin-game era.