Profit Sharer
About This Machine
The Profit Sharer, made by Field Manufacturing Corporation of Peoria, Illinois in 1932, is not a standalone pinball machine but a "Jack Pot Attachment" designed to be fitted to the front of an existing pinball cabinet, converting a non-payout game into a payout (gambling) machine. It was marketed to operators and jobbers, and period advertising indicates it was also offered to principal manufacturers for installation on new games.
As a conversion accessory rather than a complete pinball machine, the Profit Sharer had no playfield or scoring mechanics of its own - it simply added a payout function to whatever base game it was attached to. (Flipper-equipped pinball would not exist until 1947, so this pre-war device predates flippers entirely.) Specific technical details of its mechanism are not well documented today.
A similarly named "Profit Sharer" device was also produced in 1932 by Electra Mfg. Co. of Kansas City, Missouri; the two appear to be separate, competing products rather than the same item. As an artifact of the payout-conversion trade that flourished alongside pinball's early non-payout/payout debates, the Field Manufacturing Profit Sharer offers a glimpse into the commercial side of pre-war coin-op history.