Whip-It

The Whip-It pinball machine, manufactured by the Wal-Bil Novelty Company of St. Louis, Missouri in 1932, is a rare and significant example of early pinball history, predating the electromechanical era that would come to dominate the industry for decades.

The game holds 10 balls, playable for 5 cents, and features 14 trap holes, each with a bottom that is actually the top surface of a movable post. To start a game, the player inserts a coin and turns a front handle, which raises all the posts and pushes out any trapped balls from the previous play; the balls then roll down to the ball serve trough to be shot into play. The handle cannot be turned again until another coin is inserted.

Several characteristics of this particular example - hand-painted score numbers, rough-welded and unfinished mechanisms with visible burn marks, extra loose matching parts, and handwritten numbers found inside the cabinet - have led its owner to believe it may be a prototype rather than a standard production unit. The cabinet measures approximately 36 1/2 inches long, 17 1/2 inches wide, 37 1/2 inches high in front, and 41 inches high in back. As one of the few known surviving examples from Wal-Bil Novelty Company (whose only other known game, Ro-Lay, had a round playfield), Whip-It offers a rare glimpse into pinball's mechanical beginnings.