This game is generally considered to be the first version of what became the pinball machine. Bagatelles was an old game, played by shooting a ball up a table using a cue, trying to drop the ball into various holes with various values. In this game invented by a man named Montague Redgrave and patented in 1871, the cue was replaced by a spring-loaded plunger on one side and the size was shrunk from the original 21 x84". It was an immediate hit. More here.
It took another three-quarters of a century before flippers were introduced (1947), thus completing the classic pinball machine layout.
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