1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbam here with another classic brain Stuff episode. 3 00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:14,200 Speaker 1: In this one, we dig into the strange and fascinating 4 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:18,239 Speaker 1: machines drawn by Rube Goldberg and how he came to 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:23,599 Speaker 1: be a household name. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Fogelbaum Here, 6 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: have you ever seen a Rube Goldberg contraption? They're gizmos 7 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: that perform a simple task in a ridiculously complicated manner. 8 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: For example, want to know how to get rid of 9 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: a mouse? Simple? There's a mouse trap that lures the 10 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,239 Speaker 1: mouse with a painting of a piece of cheese. It 11 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,640 Speaker 1: causes the mouse to step on a hot stove, jump 12 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: to an escalator, fall on a boxing glove, and get 13 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,280 Speaker 1: knocked into a rocket that sends him to the moon. 14 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:50,559 Speaker 1: What could be easier? The mouse trap was one of 15 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: many cartoons by Ruben Goldberg, a rock star cartoonist of 16 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 1: the early nine hundreds. According to Renny Prittican, chief curator 17 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Goldberg drew 18 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:05,679 Speaker 1: thousands of cartoons of wacky inventions that were syndicated in 19 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 1: newspapers all over the United States. His name became synonymous 20 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: with entertainingly absurd machinery that complicates simple tasks. In one 21 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: the Miriam Webster Dictionary included the term Rube Goldberg, making 22 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: Goldberg the only person whose name is listed as an 23 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 1: adjective in the dictionary. According to Smithsonian dot com, Goldberg, 24 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: who was born in San Francisco in eighteen eighty three, 25 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: was originally an engineer. He graduated from the College of 26 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: Mining Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 27 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: nineteen o four. For six months, he mapped water and 28 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: sewer lines for San Francisco until he could stand it 29 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: no longer. He then took a lower paying job cartooning 30 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: at the San Francisco Chronicle. His granddaughter Jennifer George says 31 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 1: what he cared about most was if he made you laugh. 32 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: He book The Art of Rube Goldberg describes his extensive 33 00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: output of cartoons, writing, and even sculpture up until his 34 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:02,640 Speaker 1: death in nine teen seventy. Goldberg left San Francisco for 35 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: New York in nineteen o seven and was hired by 36 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:08,079 Speaker 1: the New York Evening Mail. One of his early cartoons 37 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,360 Speaker 1: for the newspapers showed an injured man who had fallen 38 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:13,079 Speaker 1: from a fifty story building and a woman asking are 39 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: you hurt? The man replies, no, I am taking my 40 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: beauty sleep. It was a hit, and over the next 41 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:22,080 Speaker 1: two years he drew four hundred and forty nine more 42 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: in the Foolish Questions series. Readers loved sending in suggestions. 43 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: He also created a series called I'm the Guy. It 44 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: featured statements such as I'm the guy who put hobo 45 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:35,400 Speaker 1: and hoboken and I'm the guy who puts sand in 46 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: the sandwich, starting a national fad. Goldberg's invention drawings began 47 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:42,959 Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve and made him into a household name. 48 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: According to an exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in 49 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: San Francisco, the first was the simple mosquito exterminator. Here's 50 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: what's going on. A mosquito looking to bite. A sleeping 51 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,880 Speaker 1: man enters a window. A walks along the board, baited 52 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:00,400 Speaker 1: by small pieces of steak, but then falls on counious 53 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 1: because of chloroform fumes from a sponge b and falls 54 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 1: onto a spring loaded platform see it. Then wakes up, 55 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: looks through the telescope d to see the reflection of 56 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,040 Speaker 1: the sleeper's bald head and a mirror E which it 57 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:14,639 Speaker 1: mistakes for the moon outside the window, and this jumps 58 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: off that spring loaded platform through the empty telescope see 59 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: through D and hits the mirror, then falling into a 60 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: trash can f For the next twenty years, Goldberg provided 61 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,079 Speaker 1: a new cartoon invention about every two weeks. He continued 62 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: on a less frequent basis intil he invented the character 63 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, who created machines to open screen doors, 64 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: shine shoes, and find soap dropped from the bathtub. According 65 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: to the art of Rube Goldberg, this character was inspired 66 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:48,520 Speaker 1: by two professors that Goldberg found particularly boring at the 67 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: College of Mining Engineering, Samuel B. Christie, who lectured at 68 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: length on time and motion efficiency, and Frederick Slate, who 69 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: once showed students the bear Dick, a convoluted machine meant 70 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: to measure the weight a the earth. Adam Gopnik wrote 71 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: in his introduction to the book that the invention cartoons 72 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,760 Speaker 1: mocked the elaborate world of machinery by mocking the larger 73 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: idea of efficiency. Gopnick wrote that Goldberg had a poetic 74 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: intuition common to all great cartoonists. Goldberg was an early 75 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,720 Speaker 1: voice questioning the use to which technology is put and 76 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: the benefits of supposed labor saving devices. Instead of simplifying life, 77 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: they complicated. Predican says the theme is pertinent today because 78 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: in the rush to create and sell new technology. Predicans said, 79 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: we are ignoring a public conversation is this good for 80 00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:41,719 Speaker 1: us or not? In Goldberg started drawing political cartoons. In them, 81 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: he began to comment on the rise of fascism. Prediction 82 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: said he got a lot of criticism for it, including 83 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,080 Speaker 1: threats to himself and his family. Among his famous political 84 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: cartoons was a scene in a Middle Eastern desert. Two 85 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 1: figures trudge along to parallel paths that never meet. One 86 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: figure is labeled Arab and the other jew. Cartoon shows 87 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,240 Speaker 1: a small house balanced on an enormous nuclear missile balanced 88 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: on a precipice. The title is piece today this cartoon 89 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 1: want to pull its surprise. Pretticin said he had a 90 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:18,680 Speaker 1: huge impact on his time. Culturally, cartoonists were immensely popular. 91 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:23,280 Speaker 1: They were really cultural heroes, and Rube Goldberg devices live 92 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:26,679 Speaker 1: on today in the Rube Goldberg Machine contest, which pits 93 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:29,039 Speaker 1: school kids against each other in an effort to design 94 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:31,960 Speaker 1: and build wacky machinery. You can google some of their 95 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: efforts and check them out on YouTube. Today's episode is 96 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 1: based on the article who was Rube Goldberg and What 97 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:45,040 Speaker 1: are his Contraptions? On how stuff works dot Com written 98 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: by Stale simonton brain Stuff's production of I Heart Radio 99 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:50,040 Speaker 1: and partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it 100 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,159 Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klein. Four more podcasts from my 101 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 1: heart Radio visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 102 00:05:56,240 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.