LOL, those last two, who in the world would want to try and steal those designs?

Back in the day, I'm sure they were cutting edge.

Bally/Williams score reel designs of the same era blow the decagon out of the water. The decagon is overly complex, difficult to adjust and difficult to keep in adjustment.

Bally/Williams are much simpler designs, require little to no adjustment, and extremely simple to work on. Much more reliable.

I'd equate the decagon to a German car, which I unfortunately have tons of experience worth. They're fun, but if there is anything that the Germans love, it's complexity. And it's not always better.

<blockquote cite="#. ...... but if there is anything that the Germans love, it's complexity. And it's not always better

http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/styles.html

I used to work on German high speed mail processing equipment. I remember the words of someone who when he first laid eyes on one of these contraptions said, "it's like cutting butter with a chain saw". Man, was he ever right!

Oddly though, they never patented the flipper. I think we all know that of course!

I combined this list with a list I had and put it online at:

www.funwithpinball.com/resources/patents

Suggestions for the list are welcome. Beware that there are tons of patents out there. I'm mostly looking for suggestions for interesting ones.

/Mark