WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Did Rube Goldberg Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbam here with another classic brain Stuff episode.

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<v Speaker 1>In this one, we dig into the strange and fascinating

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<v Speaker 1>machines drawn by Rube Goldberg and how he came to

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<v Speaker 1>be a household name. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Fogelbaum Here,

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<v Speaker 1>have you ever seen a Rube Goldberg contraption? They're gizmos

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<v Speaker 1>that perform a simple task in a ridiculously complicated manner.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, want to know how to get rid of

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<v Speaker 1>a mouse? Simple? There's a mouse trap that lures the

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<v Speaker 1>mouse with a painting of a piece of cheese. It

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<v Speaker 1>causes the mouse to step on a hot stove, jump

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<v Speaker 1>to an escalator, fall on a boxing glove, and get

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<v Speaker 1>knocked into a rocket that sends him to the moon.

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<v Speaker 1>What could be easier? The mouse trap was one of

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<v Speaker 1>many cartoons by Ruben Goldberg, a rock star cartoonist of

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<v Speaker 1>the early nine hundreds. According to Renny Prittican, chief curator

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<v Speaker 1>at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Goldberg drew

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<v Speaker 1>thousands of cartoons of wacky inventions that were syndicated in

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<v Speaker 1>newspapers all over the United States. His name became synonymous

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<v Speaker 1>with entertainingly absurd machinery that complicates simple tasks. In one

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<v Speaker 1>the Miriam Webster Dictionary included the term Rube Goldberg, making

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<v Speaker 1>Goldberg the only person whose name is listed as an

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<v Speaker 1>adjective in the dictionary. According to Smithsonian dot com, Goldberg,

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<v Speaker 1>who was born in San Francisco in eighteen eighty three,

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<v Speaker 1>was originally an engineer. He graduated from the College of

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<v Speaker 1>Mining Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen o four. For six months, he mapped water and

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<v Speaker 1>sewer lines for San Francisco until he could stand it

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<v Speaker 1>no longer. He then took a lower paying job cartooning

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<v Speaker 1>at the San Francisco Chronicle. His granddaughter Jennifer George says

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<v Speaker 1>what he cared about most was if he made you laugh.

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<v Speaker 1>He book The Art of Rube Goldberg describes his extensive

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<v Speaker 1>output of cartoons, writing, and even sculpture up until his

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<v Speaker 1>death in nine teen seventy. Goldberg left San Francisco for

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<v Speaker 1>New York in nineteen o seven and was hired by

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<v Speaker 1>the New York Evening Mail. One of his early cartoons

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<v Speaker 1>for the newspapers showed an injured man who had fallen

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<v Speaker 1>from a fifty story building and a woman asking are

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<v Speaker 1>you hurt? The man replies, no, I am taking my

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<v Speaker 1>beauty sleep. It was a hit, and over the next

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<v Speaker 1>two years he drew four hundred and forty nine more

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<v Speaker 1>in the Foolish Questions series. Readers loved sending in suggestions.

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<v Speaker 1>He also created a series called I'm the Guy. It

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<v Speaker 1>featured statements such as I'm the guy who put hobo

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<v Speaker 1>and hoboken and I'm the guy who puts sand in

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<v Speaker 1>the sandwich, starting a national fad. Goldberg's invention drawings began

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen twelve and made him into a household name.

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<v Speaker 1>According to an exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in

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<v Speaker 1>San Francisco, the first was the simple mosquito exterminator. Here's

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<v Speaker 1>what's going on. A mosquito looking to bite. A sleeping

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<v Speaker 1>man enters a window. A walks along the board, baited

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<v Speaker 1>by small pieces of steak, but then falls on counious

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<v Speaker 1>because of chloroform fumes from a sponge b and falls

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<v Speaker 1>onto a spring loaded platform see it. Then wakes up,

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<v Speaker 1>looks through the telescope d to see the reflection of

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<v Speaker 1>the sleeper's bald head and a mirror E which it

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<v Speaker 1>mistakes for the moon outside the window, and this jumps

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<v Speaker 1>off that spring loaded platform through the empty telescope see

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<v Speaker 1>through D and hits the mirror, then falling into a

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<v Speaker 1>trash can f For the next twenty years, Goldberg provided

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<v Speaker 1>a new cartoon invention about every two weeks. He continued

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<v Speaker 1>on a less frequent basis intil he invented the character

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<v Speaker 1>Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, who created machines to open screen doors,

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<v Speaker 1>shine shoes, and find soap dropped from the bathtub. According

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<v Speaker 1>to the art of Rube Goldberg, this character was inspired

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<v Speaker 1>by two professors that Goldberg found particularly boring at the

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<v Speaker 1>College of Mining Engineering, Samuel B. Christie, who lectured at

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<v Speaker 1>length on time and motion efficiency, and Frederick Slate, who

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<v Speaker 1>once showed students the bear Dick, a convoluted machine meant

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<v Speaker 1>to measure the weight a the earth. Adam Gopnik wrote

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<v Speaker 1>in his introduction to the book that the invention cartoons

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<v Speaker 1>mocked the elaborate world of machinery by mocking the larger

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<v Speaker 1>idea of efficiency. Gopnick wrote that Goldberg had a poetic

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<v Speaker 1>intuition common to all great cartoonists. Goldberg was an early

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<v Speaker 1>voice questioning the use to which technology is put and

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<v Speaker 1>the benefits of supposed labor saving devices. Instead of simplifying life,

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<v Speaker 1>they complicated. Predican says the theme is pertinent today because

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<v Speaker 1>in the rush to create and sell new technology. Predicans said,

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<v Speaker 1>we are ignoring a public conversation is this good for

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<v Speaker 1>us or not? In Goldberg started drawing political cartoons. In them,

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<v Speaker 1>he began to comment on the rise of fascism. Prediction

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<v Speaker 1>said he got a lot of criticism for it, including

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<v Speaker 1>threats to himself and his family. Among his famous political

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<v Speaker 1>cartoons was a scene in a Middle Eastern desert. Two

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<v Speaker 1>figures trudge along to parallel paths that never meet. One

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<v Speaker 1>figure is labeled Arab and the other jew. Cartoon shows

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<v Speaker 1>a small house balanced on an enormous nuclear missile balanced

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<v Speaker 1>on a precipice. The title is piece today this cartoon

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<v Speaker 1>want to pull its surprise. Pretticin said he had a

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<v Speaker 1>huge impact on his time. Culturally, cartoonists were immensely popular.

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<v Speaker 1>They were really cultural heroes, and Rube Goldberg devices live

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<v Speaker 1>on today in the Rube Goldberg Machine contest, which pits

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<v Speaker 1>school kids against each other in an effort to design

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<v Speaker 1>and build wacky machinery. You can google some of their

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<v Speaker 1>efforts and check them out on YouTube. Today's episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on the article who was Rube Goldberg and What

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<v Speaker 1>are his Contraptions? On how stuff works dot Com written

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<v Speaker 1>by Stale simonton brain Stuff's production of I Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>and partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Klein. Four more podcasts from my

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