I think I’ve always known what a Rube Goldberg device was, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one until my friend Robert sent me the link to the ASIFA Animation Archive. While there are a few Goldberg comic pages there, you can see more of these strange and incredible inventions at RubeGoldberg.com, which appears to be the official site of the Rube Goldberg estate. “Best known for his INVENTIONS,” it explains:
Rube’s early years as an engineer informed his most acclaimed works. A Rube Goldberg contraption – an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and live animals – takes a simple task and makes it extraordinarily complicated. He had solutions for How To Get The Cotton Out Of An Aspirin Bottle, imagined a Self-Operating Napkin, and created a Simple Alarm Clock – to name just a few of his hilariously depicted drawings.
Do yourself a favor. Go enjoy the gallery of Rube’s art there. This stuff is a riot.
PS I’d post a picture here, but it appears that the estate is rather picky about copyright infringement.
Recent Comments