A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.
Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadge ...
, is a
chain reaction
A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events.
Chain reactions are one way that syst ...
-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal. In the United Kingdom, a similar contrivance is referred to as a "Heath Robinson contraption" after cartoons by the illustrator
W. Heath Robinson.
The design of such a "machine" is often presented on paper and would be impossible to implement in actuality. More recently, such machines are being fully constructed for entertainment (for example, a breakfast scene in ''
Peewee's Big Adventure'') and in
Rube Goldberg competitions.
Over the years, the expression has expanded to mean any confusing or overly complicated system. News headlines include, but are not limited to, "Is Rep.
Bill Thomas
William Marshall Thomas (born December 6, 1941) is an American politician. He was a California Republican Party, Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 2007, finishing his tenure representing California's 22 ...
the Rube Goldberg of Legislative Reform?" and "Retirement 'insurance' as a Rube Goldberg machine". Half a century after his death, even scientific hypotheses deemed to be overly complex have been described by referencing such machines, as with linking solar gamma-ray signals to dark matter seeming "to be like a Rube Goldberg-type thing
Origin
The expression is named after the American
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.
Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadge ...
, whose cartoons often depicted devices that performed simple tasks in indirect convoluted ways. The cartoon above is Goldberg's ''Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin'', which was later reprinted in a few book collections, including the postcard book ''Rube Goldberg's Inventions!'' and the hardcover ''Rube Goldberg: Inventions'', both compiled by Maynard Frank Wolfe from the Rube Goldberg Archives.
The term "Rube Goldberg" was being used in print to describe elaborate contraptions by 1928, and appeared in the ''
Random House Dictionary of the English Language
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary'' is a large American dictionary, first published in 1966 as ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Language: The Unabridged Edition''. Edited by Editor-in-chief Jess Stein, it contained 315, ...
'' in 1966 meaning "having a fantastically complicated improvised appearance", or "deviously complex and impractical". Because Rube Goldberg machines are contraptions derived from tinkering with the tools close to hand, parallels have been drawn with evolutionary processes.
Many of Goldberg's ideas were utilized in films and TV shows for the comedic effect of creating such rigmarole for such a simple task, such as the front gate mechanism in ''
The Goonies
''The Goonies'' is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astori ...
'' and the breakfast machine shown in ''
Pee-wee's Big Adventure''. In ''Ernest Goes to Jail'', Ernest P. Worrell uses his invention simply to turn his TV on. Wallace from ''
Wallace and Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series c ...
'' creates and uses many such machines for numerous tasks, though the inspiration is the British cartoonist
W. Heath Robinson (see below). Other films such as ''
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars ...
'', the end credits of ''Waiting…'', ''Diving into the Money Pit'', and ''
Back to the Future
''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, ...
'' have featured Rube Goldberg–style devices as well.
Competitions
In early 1987,
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
in
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
started the annual National
Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is a contest in which students ages 8-18 build devices to complete a simple task in a minimum of twenty steps and a maximum of seventy five, in the style of American cartoonist Rube Goldberg. The contest is held b ...
, organized by the Phi chapter of
Theta Tau
Theta Tau () is a professional engineering fraternity. The fraternity has programs to promote the social, academic, and professional development of its members. Today, Theta Tau is the oldest and largest professional engineering fraternity and h ...
, a national engineering fraternity. In 2009, the Epsilon chapter of
Theta Tau
Theta Tau () is a professional engineering fraternity. The fraternity has programs to promote the social, academic, and professional development of its members. Today, Theta Tau is the oldest and largest professional engineering fraternity and h ...
established a similar annual contest at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.
Since around 1997, the
kinetic artist
Arthur Ganson
Arthur Ganson (born 1955) is a kinetic sculptor. He makes mechanical art demonstrations and Rube Goldberg machines with existential themes. His moving sculptures have been exhibited at a number of science museums and art galleries. Ganson's wo ...
has been the emcee of the annual "Friday After Thanksgiving" (FAT) competition sponsored by the
MIT Museum
The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, architecture, robotics, maritime histor ...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Teams of contestants construct elaborate Rube Goldberg style chain-reaction machines on tables arranged around a large gymnasium. Each apparatus is linked by a string to its predecessor and successor machine. The initial string is ceremonially pulled, and the ensuing events are videotaped in closeup, and simultaneously projected on large screens for viewing by the live audience. After the entire cascade of events has finished, prizes are then awarded in various categories and age levels. Videos from several previous years' contests are viewable on the MIT Museum website.
The Chain Reaction Contraption Contest is an annual event hosted at the
Carnegie Science Center
The Carnegie Science Center is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is located in the Chateau neighborhood. It is located across the street from Heinz Field.
Overview
The Carnegie Science Center is the most visited mu ...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in which high school teams each build a Rube Goldberg machine to complete some simple task (which changes from year to year) in 20 steps or more (with some additional constraints on size, timing, safety, etc.).
On the TV show ''
Food Network Challenge
''Food Network Challenge'' is a competitive cooking television series that aired on the Food Network. In each episode, professional chefs vie in a timed competition in their professional specialty. The winner receives a cheque for $10,000 and a gol ...
'', competitors in 2011 were once required to create a Rube Goldberg machine out of sugar.
An event called 'Mission Possible' in the
Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school team ...
involves students building a Rube Goldberg-like device to perform a certain series of tasks.
The Rube Goldberg company holds an annual Rube Goldberg machine contest.
Similar expressions and artists worldwide
![Archimedean Excogitation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Archimedean_Excogitation.jpg)
* Australia — Cartoonist
Bruce Petty
Bruce Leslie Petty, born 23 November 1929 at Doncaster, Victoria, Doncaster, a suburb of Melbourne, is one of Australia's best known political satire, political satirists and cartoonists. depicts such themes as the economy, international relations or other social issues as complicated interlocking machines that manipulate, or are manipulated by, people.
* Austria —
Franz Gsellmann worked for decades on a machine that he named the ''Weltmaschine'' ("world machine"), having many similarities to a Rube Goldberg machine.
* Belgium —
Léonard comics occasionally contain such machines (e.g. a giant egg-cracking device for regular-sized eggs).
* Brazil — A TV Series from 1990 to 1994 had an intro based on a Rube Goldberg Machine. The show, ''
Rá-Tim-Bum'', was created by Flavio de Souza, and was about science for children.
* Denmark — Called ''Storm P maskiner'' ("Storm P machines"), after the Danish inventor and cartoonist
Robert Storm Petersen
Robert Storm Petersen (19 September 1882 – 6 March 1949) was a Danish cartoonist, writer, animator, illustrator, painter and humorist. He is known almost exclusively by his pen name Storm P.
Biography
He was the son of a butcher ...
(1882–1949).
* France — A similar machine is called ''usine à gaz'', or
gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space.
Early gasworks
Coal ...
, suggesting a very complicated factory with pipes running everywhere and a risk of explosion. It is now used mainly among programmers to indicate a complicated program, or in journalism to refer to a bewildering law or regulation (''cf''.
Stovepipe system In engineering and computing, "stovepipe system" is a pejorative term for a system that has the potential to share data or functionality with other systems but which does not do so. The term evokes the image of stovepipes rising above buildings, eac ...
).
* Germany — Such machines are often called ''Was-passiert-dann-Maschine'' (''"What-happens-next machine"''), for the German name of similar devices used by
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Muppet Show'', as well ...
in the children's TV series ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
''.
* India — The humorist and children's author
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray (; 30 October 1887 – 10 September 1923) was a Bengali writer and poet from the Indian subcontinent. He is remembered mainly for his writings for children. He was the son of children's story writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and ...
, in his nonsense poem "
Abol tabol", had a character (Uncle) with a Rube Goldberg-like machine called "Uncle's contraption"(''khuror kol''). This word is used colloquially in
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
to mean a complicated and useless object.
* Italy —
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
artist and scientist
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
described an
alarm clock
An alarm clock (or sometimes just an alarm) is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of individuals at a specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they ar ...
-esque device which, utilizing a slow drip of water, would fill a vessel which then operated a lever to wake the sleeper.
* Japan — Such devices are often called "Pythagorean devices" or "Pythagoras switch". ''
PythagoraSwitch
is a 15-minute Japanese educational television program that has been aired by NHK since April 9, 2002. It encourages augmenting children's "way of thinking" under the supervision of and . A five-minute format called PythagoraSwitch Mini is also ...
'' (ピタゴラスイッチ, "''Pitagora Suicchi''") is the name of a TV show featuring such devices. Another related genre is the
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...
of
chindōgu, which involves inventions that are hypothetically useful but of limited actual utility.
* Norway — The Norwegian artist and author
Kjell Aukrust
Kjell Aukrust (19 March 1920 – 24 December 2002) was a Norwegian author, poet, artist and humorist. Aukrust is principally known for his Flåklypa stories and Flåklypa drawings.
Personal life
Aukrust was born in Alvdal in Hedmark, Norway as ...
(1920—2002) was famous i.a. for his drawings of over-intricate and humorous constructions, which he often attributed to his fictive character, inventor-cum-bicycle repairman Reodor Felgen. Eventually Reodor Felgen became one of the protagonists of the successful animated movie ''
Flåklypa Grand Prix
''The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix'' ( no, Flåklypa Grand Prix) is a 1975 Norwegian stop-motion-animated feature film directed by Ivo Caprino. It is based on characters from a series of books by Norwegian cartoonist and author Kjell Aukrust.
It is t ...
'' (English: ''The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix''), in which Felgen's inventions were in fact props constructed in accordance with Aukrust's drawings by
Bjarne Sandemose Bjarne Walter William Sandemose (17 April 1924 – 21 April 2013) was a Norwegian of Danish descent.
He was born in Denmark as a son of writer Aksel Sandemose. The family migrated to Norway in 1929. He is best known for his cooperation with Ivo Cap ...
of the animation studio run by film director
Ivo Caprino
Ivo Caprino (17 February 1920 – 8 February 2001) was a Norwegian film director and writer, best known for his puppet films. His most noted film, '' Flåklypa Grand Prix'' ("Pinchcliffe Grand Prix"), was made in 1975.
Early life
Caprino ...
.
* Spain — Devices akin to Goldberg's machines are known as ''Inventos del TBO (tebeo)'', named after those that several cartoonists (Nit, Tínez, Marino Benejam, Francesc Tur and finally Ramón Sabatés) made up and drew for a section in the comic book magazine ''
TBO'', allegedly designed by some "Professor Franz" from Copenhagen in Denmark.
* Switzerland —
Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Peter Fischli (born 8 June 1952) and David Weiss (21 June 1946 – 27 April 2012), often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, were a Swiss artist duo that collaborated beginning in 1979. Their best-known work is the film '' Der Lauf der Dinge'' (''T ...
, Swiss artists known for their art installation movie ''Der Lauf der Dinge'' (''
The Way Things Go
''The Way Things Go'' (german: Der Lauf der Dinge) is a 1987 16 mm art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects and industrial materials in the manner of a Rube ...
'', 1987). It documents a 30-minute-long causal chain assembled of everyday objects, resembling a Rube Goldberg machine.
* Turkey — Such devices are known as ''Zihni Sinir Projeleri'', allegedly invented by a certain Professor Zihni Sinir ("Crabby Mind"), a curious scientist character created by İrfan Sayar in 1977 for the cartoon magazine ''
Gırgır
''Gırgır'' (meaning ''Fun'' in English) was a Turkish weekly humor magazine published from 1972 to 1993 in Turkey.
History and profile
''Gırgır'' was founded by the brothers Oğuz Aral (1936-2004) and Tekin Aral (1941-1999). After having sta ...
''. The cartoonist later went on to open a studio selling actual working implementations of his designs.
* United Kingdom — The term "Heath Robinson contraption" gained dictionary recognition in 1912, referring to the fantastical comic machinery drawn by British cartoonist and illustrator
W. Heath Robinson, which predates Rube Goldberg's introduction of his machines. There are similarities between some of Heath Robinson's contraptions and the Rube Goldberg example shown and described above. See also
Rowland Emett
Frederick Rowland Emett OBE (22 October 190613 November 1990), known as Rowland Emett (with the forename sometimes spelled "Roland" s his middle name appears on his birth certificateand the surname frequently misspelled "Emmett"), was an Engl ...
, active in the 1950s. The TV show ''
The Great Egg Race
''The Great Egg Race'' was a BBC television series, that ran from 1979 to 1986 broadcast on BBC 2. Twenty-two episodes were produced and presented by six presenters over the life of the show.
Programme
''The Great Egg Race'' was a BBC televisi ...
'' (1979 to 1986) also involved making physical contraptions to solve set problems, and often resulted in Heath-Robinsonian devices.
The Great Egg Race
''The Great Egg Race'' was a BBC television series, that ran from 1979 to 1986 broadcast on BBC 2. Twenty-two episodes were produced and presented by six presenters over the life of the show.
Programme
''The Great Egg Race'' was a BBC televisi ...
* United States —
Tim Hawkinson
Tim Hawkinson (born 1960) is an American artist who mostly works as a sculptor.
Education
Hawkinson was born in San Francisco, California in 1960. He received a BFA from San Jose State University in 1984, and a MFA from the University of Cali ...
has made several art pieces that contain complicated apparatuses that are generally used to make
abstract art
Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.
Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...
or music. Many of them are centered on the randomness of other devices (such as a
slot machine
A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...
) and are dependent on them to create some menial effect.
See also
*
Cog (advertisement)
"Cog" is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Honda in 2003 to promote the seventh-generation Accord line of cars. It follows the convention of a Rube Goldberg machine, utilizing a chain of colliding parts taken from a d ...
*
Deathtrap (plot device) {{Unreferenced, date=October 2014
A deathtrap is a literary and dramatic plot device in which a villain who has captured the hero or another sympathetic character attempts to use an elaborate, improbable, and usually sadistic method of murdering th ...
*
Domino effect
A domino effect or chain reaction is the cumulative effect generated when a particular event triggers a chain of similar events. This term is best known as a mechanical effect and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically ...
*
Gyro Gearloose
Gyro Gearloose is a cartoon character created in 1952 by Carl Barks for Disney comics. An anthropomorphic chicken, he is part of the Donald Duck universe, appearing in comic book stories as a friend of Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, and anyone w ...
* ''
Mouse Trap
A mousetrap is a specialized type of animal trap designed primarily to catch and, usually, kill mice. Mousetraps are usually set in an indoor location where there is a suspected infestation of rodents. Larger traps are designed to catch other s ...
'' (1960s game)
*
Perchang, a game in which the player operates a Rube-Goldberg like machine to get balls into a funnel
*
Robodonien
*
Rolling ball sculpture
A rolling ball sculpture (sometimes referred to as a marble run, ball run, gravitram, ''kugelbahn'' (German: 'ball track'), or rolling ball machine) is a form of kinetic art – an art form that contains moving pieces – that specific ...
*
''The Incredible Machine'' (video game series)
*
This Too Shall Pass (OK Go song)
"This Too Shall Pass" is a song by American rock band OK Go. It was released as the second single from their third studio album, ''Of the Blue Colour of the Sky'', in January 2010. The band took the unorthodox route of creating two official music ...
, the video of which features a Rube Goldberg style machine
*
Turboencabulator
The Turbo Encabulator (later the Rockwell Retro Encabulator and SANS ICS HyperEncabulator) is a fictional electromechanical machine with a satirical technobabble description that became a famous in-joke amongst engineers after it was published by ...
References
External links
The Official Rube Goldberg Web SiteSmithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview, 1970Annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest*
ttp://mitmuseum.mit.edu/fat Friday After Thanksgiving (FAT) chain reaction competitionat the
MIT Museum
The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, architecture, robotics, maritime histor ...
* {{curlie, Arts/Comics/Creators/G/Goldberg,_Rube/, Rube Goldberg
Mechanisms (engineering)
Mechanical engineering
English phrases
Articles containing video clips
Rube Goldberg