1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:10,799 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, have you ever seen a Rube Goldberg contraption? 3 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: There gizmos that perform a simple task in a ridiculously 4 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:17,720 Speaker 1: complicated manner. For example, want to know how to get 5 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: rid of a mouse? Simple? There's a mouse trap that 6 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: lures the mouse with a painting of a piece of cheese. 7 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:25,880 Speaker 1: It causes the mouse to step on a hot stove, 8 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,440 Speaker 1: jump to an escalator, fall on a boxing glove, and 9 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: get knocked into a rocket that sends him to the moon. 10 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 1: What could be easier? The mouse trap was one of 11 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: many cartoons by Ruben Goldberg, a rock star cartoonist of 12 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,559 Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds. According to Renny Prittican, chief curator 13 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:46,840 Speaker 1: at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Goldberg drew 14 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 1: thousands of cartoons of wacky inventions that were syndicated in 15 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: newspapers all over the United States. His name became synonymous 16 00:00:54,200 --> 00:01:00,000 Speaker 1: with entertainingly absurd machinery that complicates simple tasks. The Miriam 17 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: Webster Dictionary included the term Rube Goldberg, making Goldberg the 18 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:06,400 Speaker 1: only person whose name is listed as an adjective in 19 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: the dictionary. According to Smithsonian dot com, Goldberg, who was 20 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,839 Speaker 1: born in San Francisco in eighteen eighty three, was originally 21 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: an engineer. He graduated from the College of Mining Engineering 22 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:20,400 Speaker 1: at the University of California at Berkeley in nineteen o four. 23 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:23,600 Speaker 1: For six months he mapped water and sewer lines for 24 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: San Francisco until he could stand it no longer. He 25 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: then took a lower paying job cartooning at the San 26 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,199 Speaker 1: Francisco Chronicle. His granddaughter, Jennifer George, says what he cared 27 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: about most was if he made you laugh. Book The 28 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:41,959 Speaker 1: Art of Rube Goldberg describes his extensive output of cartoons, writing, 29 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,560 Speaker 1: and even sculpture up until his death in nineteen seventy. 30 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: Goldberg left San Francisco for New York in nineteen o 31 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: seven and was hired by the New York Evening Mail. 32 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:53,760 Speaker 1: One of his early cartoons for the newspapers showed an 33 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: injured man who had fallen from a fifty story building 34 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: and a woman asking are you hurt? The man replies, no, 35 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: I am taking my beauty sleep. It was a hit, 36 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: and over the next two years he drew four hundred 37 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:09,680 Speaker 1: and forty nine more in the Foolish Questions series, readers 38 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: loved sending in suggestions. He also created a series called 39 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: I'm the Guy. It featured statements such as I'm the 40 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,079 Speaker 1: guy who put Hobo and hoboken and I'm the guy 41 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: who puts sand in the sandwich, starting a national fad. 42 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 1: Goldberg's invention drawings began in nineteen twelve and made him 43 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:28,960 Speaker 1: into a household name. According to an exhibit at the 44 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,360 Speaker 1: Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, the first was the 45 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:38,000 Speaker 1: simple mosquito exterminator. Here's what's going on. A mosquito looking 46 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,240 Speaker 1: to bite. A sleeping man enters a window. A walks 47 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: along a board baited by small pieces of steak, but 48 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: then falls unconscious because of chloroform fumes from a sponge 49 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 1: B and falls onto a spring loaded platform see it. 50 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: Then wakes up, looks through the telescope D to see 51 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,919 Speaker 1: the reflection of the sleeper's bald head and a mirror E, 52 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: which it mistakes for the moon outside the window, and 53 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: this jumps off that spring loaded platform through the empty 54 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: telescope see through D and hits the mirror, then falling 55 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:09,760 Speaker 1: into a trash can. F for the next twenty years, 56 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: Goldberg provided a new cartoon invention about every two weeks. 57 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:16,079 Speaker 1: He continued on a less frequent basis. Util nineteen sixty four, 58 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:21,160 Speaker 1: he invented the character Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, who created 59 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: machines to open screen doors, shine shoes, and find soap 60 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:28,320 Speaker 1: dropped from the bathtub. According to the art of Rube Goldberg, 61 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: this character was inspired by two professors that Goldberg found 62 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 1: particularly boring at the College of Mining Engineering, Samuel B. Christie, 63 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: who lectured at length on time and motion efficiency, and 64 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: Frederick Slate, who once showed students the bear Dick, a 65 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: convoluted machine meant to measure the weight of the earth. 66 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: Adam Gopnik wrote in his introduction to the book that 67 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: the Invention cartoons mocked the elaborate world of machinery by 68 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 1: mocking the larger idea of efficiency. Gopnick wrote that Goldberg 69 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: had a poetic intuition common to all great cartoonists. Goldberg 70 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: was an early voice questioning the use to which technology 71 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: is put and the benefits of supposed labor saving devices. 72 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:12,240 Speaker 1: Instead of simplifying life, they complicated. Predicans says The theme 73 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: is pertinent today because in the rush to create and 74 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: sell new technology. Predicans said, we are ignoring a public conversation. 75 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:23,360 Speaker 1: Is this good for us or not? In nineteen thirty eight, 76 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,880 Speaker 1: Goldberg started drawing political cartoons. In them, he began to 77 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: comment on the rise of fascism. Predictions said he got 78 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,760 Speaker 1: a lot of criticism for it, including threats to himself 79 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 1: and his family. Among his famous political cartoons was a 80 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: scene in a Middle Eastern desert, two figures trudge along 81 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:43,719 Speaker 1: to parallel paths that never meet. One figure is labeled 82 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: Arab and the other jew. In seven cartoon shows a 83 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: small house balanced on an enormous nuclear missile balanced on 84 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 1: a precipice. The title is piece today this cartoon want 85 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: to pull its surprise Preddicans said he had a huge 86 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: impact on his time Culturally, cartoonists were immensely popular. They 87 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:08,040 Speaker 1: were really cultural heroes and Rube Goldberg devices live on 88 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:11,599 Speaker 1: today in the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, which pits school 89 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: kids against each other in an effort to design and 90 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: build wacky machinery. You can google some of their efforts 91 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 1: and check them out on YouTube. Today's episode was written 92 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:27,719 Speaker 1: by Stell Simonton and produced by Tyler Klang for more 93 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: on this and lots of other historical topics, visit our 94 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: home planet as stuffworks dot com.