Short answer: the idea began in France (the tabletop game bagatelle), but the modern pinball machine took shape through 19th-century inventions and U.S. coin-op developments. In other words - roots in France, evolution in Britain/America.
The earliest clear ancestor was bagatelle, a late-18th-century French table game that used an inclined board, pins and holes as targets. Bagatelle spread across Europe and to America and is widely cited as the direct precursor to what we now call pinball.
The jump toward a recognizably modern pinball machine came in the 19th century. British-born inventor Montague Redgrave is often credited for a key step: in 1871 he patented "Improvements in Bagatelle," introducing a spring plunger and smaller marbles for a compact countertop game - a design that directly influenced later coin-operated tables.
By the 1930s the game moved into commercial arcades: manufacturers produced coin-operated tables under glass, added electric bumpers and lights, and scaled production. These changes turned a parlor pastime into an amusement-floor staple and set the stage for the modern pinball machine boom.
A second major turning point came after World War II, when player-controlled flippers appeared. Gottlieb's 1947 "Humpty Dumpty" added electromechanical flippers, changing gameplay from mainly chance to a much more skillful experience - another defining step in pinball's evolution.
Today the pinball machine is a hybrid story: French origins (bagatelle) → 19th-century mechanical innovations (Redgrave) → 20th-century U.S. electrification and flipper era. So asking "which country invented pinball?" depends on definition: the idea started in France, but the modern commercial form was shaped by inventors and manufacturers in Britain and the United States.
Bottom line: credit France for the original game, and credit Montague Redgrave plus American arcade makers for turning it into the pinball we recognize today.
