RUBE GOLDBERG

'Reuben Garret L. Goldberg' (July 4, 1883 - December 7, 1970) was an American cartoonist. He earned lasting fame for his Rube Goldberg machines (complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect and convoluted ways). He was awarded the National Cartoonist Society Gold Key Award posthumously in 1980.
Goldberg went to Lowell High School in San Francisco in 1900 and earned a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1904. After college, Goldberg was hired by the city of San Francisco as an engineer. However, his fondness for drawing cartoons prevailed, and after just a few months he quit the city job for a job with the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' as a sports cartoonist. The following year, he took a job with the ''San Francisco Bulletin'', where he remained until he moved to New York City in 1907.
He drew cartoons for several newspapers, including the ''New York Evening Journal'' and the ''New York Evening Mail''. His work entered syndication in 1915, beginning his nationwide popularity. A prolific artist, Goldberg produced several cartoon series simultaneously; titles included ''Mike and Ike'', ''Boob McNutt'', ''Foolish Questions'', ''Lala Palooza'', and ''The Weekly Meeting of the Tuesday Women's Club''.
While these series were quite popular, the one leading to his lasting fame involved a character named Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts. In this series, Goldberg would draw labeled schematics of comical "inventions" which would later bear his name. In 1995, "Rube Goldberg's Inventions", depicting Professor Butts' Self-Operating Napkin, was one of 20 strips included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative U.S. postage stamps.
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948.

Contents

Later life

Awards

Rube Goldberg machines

See also

External links

Later life

Later in his career, Goldberg was employed by the ''New York Journal American'' and remained there until his retirement in 1964. During his retirement, he occupied himself by making bronze sculptures. Several one-man shows of his work were organized, the last one during his lifetime being in 1970 at the National Museum of American History (then called the Museum of History and Technology) in Washington, D.C.. Shortly after, he died at the age of 87; he is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

Awards

In addition to his Pulitzer Prize in 1948, he received the National Cartoonists Society Gold T-Square Award in 1955, their Reuben Award in 1969, and their Gold Key Award (their "Hall of Fame") posthumously in 1980.

Rube Goldberg machines

Main articles: Rube Goldberg machine

A Rube Goldberg machine is a complex apparatus that performs a simple, easy task in an indirect and convoluted way. The best examples of his machines have an anticipation factor, as the machine makes slow but steady progress toward its goal.
The term also applies as a classification for a generally over-complicated apparatus or software. It first appeared in ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'' with the definition "accomplishing by extremely complex roundabout means what actually or seemingly could be done simply."
Rube's inventions are a unique commentary on life's complexities. They provide a humorous diversion into the absurd that lampoons the wonders of technology. These satiress of man's ingenuity resonate in modern life for those seeking simplicity in the midst of a technology revolution.
Goldberg machines can also be seen as a physical representation of the 'pataphysical—carrying a simple idea to a nonsensical, ornamented extreme.

See also

★ Domino effect

★ Chain reaction

★ Heath Robinson

★ Jean Tinguely—Swiss artist who built Reube-Goldberg-machine-esque artworks

External links

★ The Official Rube Goldberg Web Site

★ Toonopedia entry

★ Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview, 1970

★ Annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

★ Detailed specifications of an award-winning Rube Goldberg machine from the New York City science fair

★ NCS Awards