Reuben Garret Lucius Goldberg, born July 4, 1883 in San Francisco was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor who received a 1948 Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning.
He is best known for his series of popular cartoons in publications such as the New York Evening Journal, depicting what came to be known as Rube Goldberg Machines, ingenious yet overly-complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways.
For instance, this one for a Self-Operating Napkin, for which he is perhaps best known:
Explained as follows:
The “Self-Operating Napkin” is activated when the soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C) which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K) which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin. After-dinner entertainment can be supplied with the simple substitution of a harmonica for the napkin.
Mr. Goldberg was the inspiration for a popular board game I played as a child in the seventies called Mousetrap, designed by Martin Glass & Associates and distributed by Milton Bradley:
Mousetrap, the game, incited a licensing controversy, which was resolved by Goldberg himself in Renaissance Humanist fashion:
The game designer Marvin Glass (and his company, Marvin Glass and Associates) refused to pay licensing fees or royalties to Rube Goldberg, despite Marvin acknowledging being inspired by Goldberg as well as the clear similarities between the game and a Goldberg drawing. [...] Elderly and near retirement, Goldberg declined to take legal action against Glass because inspiration and ideas are not intellectual property that can be protected with a copyright, trademark, or patent [...].
Perhaps because of the unspoken polymath credo of ideas belonging to the universe, or perhaps because of our shared Renaissance Humanist ideals, but most likely because of our shared experience as Polymaths in a world owned by Specialists, my favorite Rube Goldberg device is this one, entitled, Idea for Dodging Bill Collectors:
Since his passing on December 7, 1970, I doubt we’ve seen another of exactly his kind, which is why I’ll continue arguing the value of polymaths to our society as one-of-a-kind entities.
Not unlike collectible works of art, polymaths are a society’s collectible persons. Yet unlike many works of art, their lives are owned collectively, and free to be enjoyed by all.
Rube Goldberg, born on the 4th of July in San Francisco: A True American.
-jk
P.S. Dabbling in film around the age of 47, Goldberg penned a feature film directed by Benjamin Stoloff called Soup to Nuts (1930), which marks the film debut of a comic trio which would go on to become known as The Three Stooges.
