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Reuben Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 - December 7, 1970) was a cartoonist, cofounder and first president of the National Cartoonists Society. He earned a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1904.
Biography
Goldberg was hired by the city of San Francisco as an engineer out of college. However his affinity for drawing cartoons prevailed, and after just a few months he left city employ 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 1907, when he relocated to New York City.
He drew cartoons for several newspapers in New York (New York Evening Journal, New York Evening Mail, New York Journal). 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 all these series were quite popular, the one which led 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. Goldberg took a job with the New York Sun in 1938 as a political cartoonist, and was successful in this endeavor as well; he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948.
Later in his career Goldberg was employed by the New York Journal-American, remaining there until his retirement in 1964. During his retirement he occupied himself with making bronze sculptures. Several one-man shows of his work were organized, the last one of his lifetime being in 1970 at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Shortly afterward, he died at the age of 87; he is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.
Scientific influence
A Rube Goldberg machine is any exceedingly complex apparatus that performs a very simple task in a very indirect and convoluted way. Rube devised and drew several such pataphysical devices. The best examples of his machines have an anticipation factor. The fact that something so wacky is happening can only be topped by it happening in a suspenseful manner.
The term also applies as a classification for 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." In Britain such a device would be called a Heath Robinson contraption. A related phenomenon is the Japanese art of useful but unusable contraptions called Chindogu.
The Ideal Novelty and Toy Company released a board game called "Mouse Trap" in 1963 that was based on Rube Goldberg's ideas. (This game is currently being made by Hasbro.) Rube's machines are often featured on television or in movies, too, for their ingenious nature and pure craziness. Sierra Entertainment released the computer game "The Incredible Machine" on CD-ROM for either PC or Macintosh computers, designed around the Rube Goldberg concept. "Return of the Incredible Machine," and "The Incredible Machine - Even More Contraptions" are no longer available.
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