Rube Goldberg

1
Rube Goldberg

• LI Sci 430
• Dan Johnson
• March 29, 2007

2
Reuben Lucius Goldberg

• American cartoonist who satirized the American
  preoccupation with technology
• His name became synonymous with any simple
  process made outlandishly complicated
• Received B.S. in engineering from University of
  California in 1904
• Became sportswriter and cartoonist for San
  Francisco Chronicle in 1904
• http//www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037223/Rube-
  Goldberg

3
Examples of his work

• Cartoon character Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola
  Butts, an inventor of contraptions that
  accomplished simple ends in a roundabout manner
• Automatic stamp licker was activated by a dwarf
  robot who overturned a can of ants onto a page of
  postage stamps gumside up.
• They were then licked up by an anteater who had
  been starved for three days

4
Example of Cartoon

• Open window (A) and fly kite (B).  String (C)
  lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape
  and eat red flannel shirt (F).   As weight of
  shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H)
  which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in
  pants (J).   Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L),
  smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket
  (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P),
  allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil
  (R), exposing lead.  Emergency knife (S) is
  always handy in case opossum or the woodpecker
  gets sick and can't work.

5
Example as Commercial