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A Rube Goldberg machine performs a simple task in a complex way.
A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg.
Since then, the expression has expanded to denote any form of overly confusing or complicated system. For example, news headlines include "Is Rep. Bill Thomas the Rube Goldberg of Legislative Reform?"[1] and "Retirement 'insurance' as a Rube Goldberg machine".[2]
Origin
Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin
Rube Goldberg's cartoons became well known for depicting complex devices that performed simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. An example on the right, is Goldberg's "Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin", which was later reprinted in the postcard book, Rube Goldberg's Inventions!, compiled by Maynard Frank Wolfe from the Rube Goldberg Archives. The "Self-Operating Napkin" is activated when the soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C) which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K) which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin.
In 1931, the Merriam–Webster dictionary adopted the word "Rube Goldberg" as an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means.[3]
Similar expressions
- The phrase Heath Robinson contraption, named after the fantastical comic machinery illustrated by British cartoonist W. Heath Robinson, shares a similar meaning but predates the Rube Goldberg machine, originating in the UK in 1912.[4]
- In France, a similar machine is called usine à gaz, or gas factory, suggesting a very complicated factory with pipes running everywhere. It is now used mainly among programmers to indicate a complex program or in journalism to refer to a bewildering law or regulation.
- In Denmark, they are called Storm P maskiner ("Storm P machines"), after the Danish cartoonist Robert Storm Petersen.
- In Bengal, the humorist and children's author Sukumar Ray, in his nonsense poem "Abol tabol", had a character (Uncle) with a Rube Goldberg-like machine called "Uncle's contraption". This word is used colloquially in Bengali to mean a complex and useless object.
- In Spain, devices akin to Goldberg's machines are known as Inventos del TBO (tebeo), named after those that cartoonist Ramón Sabatés made up and drew for a section in the TBO magazine, allegedly designed by some Professor Franz from Copenhagen.
- The Norwegian cartoonist and storyteller Kjell Aukrust created a cartoon character named Reodor Felgen, who constantly invented complex machinery. Though it was often built out of unlikely parts, it always performed very well. Felgen stars as the inventor of an extremely powerful but overly complex car, Il Tempo Gigante, in the Ivo Caprino animated puppet film Flåklypa Grand Prix (1975).
- The Australian cartoonist Bruce Petty depicts such themes as the economy, international relations or other social issues as complex interlocking machines that manipulate, or are manipulated by, people.
- In Turkey, such devices are known as Zihni Sinir Proceleri, allegedly invented by a certain Prof. Zihni Sinir ("Crabby Mind"), a curious scientist character created by İrfan Sayar in 1977 for the cartoon magazine Gırgır. The cartoonist later went on to open a studio selling actual working implementations of his designs.
- In Japan, they are called "Pythagorean devices" or "Pythagoras switch". PythagoraSwitch (ピタゴラスイッチ, "Pitagora Suicchi") is the name of a TV show featuring such devices.
- Another related phenomenon is the Japanese art of chindōgu, which involves inventions that are hypothetically useful but of limited actual utility.
- In Austria, Franz Gsellmann has worked for decades on a machine that he named the Weltmaschine ("world machine"), having many similarities to a Rube Goldberg machine.
- Several art pieces by Tim Hawkinson contain complex apparatuses that are generally used to make abstract art or musical devices. Many of them are centered around the randomness of other devices (such as a slot machine) and are dependent on them to create some menial effect.
- In Switzerland, this kind of machines are closely related with the artist duo Peter Fischli & David Weiss through their work, especially the Movie „Der Lauf der Dinge“ (The Way Things Go).
- In 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 in the children's TV show Sesame Street.
Machine contest
Many designers of Rube Goldberg machines participate in competitions, such as this one in New Mexico.
In early 1987, Purdue University in Indiana started the annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, organized by the Phi Chapter of Theta Tau, a national engineering fraternity.
Examples in media
Video games
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