Rube Goldberg’s legendary invention cartoons - using everyday household items connected in laborious ways to perform simple tasks - has sparked the imaginations of many young budding scientists to build complicated contraptions in dad’s garage.

Source: www.businessinnovationinsider.com

Rube was born in 1883 and managed to be an engineer, inventor, cartoonist and sculptor all in one. His cartoon contraptions were influenced by the machine age at the beginning of the previous century when electricity, running water, telephones, cars and new inventions - from automatic hat-tippers to motorized shoe polishers - was changing the way people lived and worked.

One of his invention cartoons for example depicted an automatic garage door opener using a bathtub, flower, bumblebee and an athlete! Rube was making fun of people who preferred doing things the hard way instead of using a simpler and direct path to accomplish a goal.

• Visit the official Rube Goldberg site
• A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. Rube’s inventions were based on the principle of a chain reaction. Try this chain reaction game
• Turn the hand - powered "generator”. Motor lifts dog house .Gear dog walks out of house. Triggers mousetrap. String on mousetrap spins gears. Paperclip from gears releases bag of balls. Bag pushes on lever. Lever releases pink ball…And this is only the beginning! See how Rube’s machines are brought to life
• Ever heard of the Butterfly effect? It also slots into the Rube philosophy of one action causing another, accumulating in force as it progresses…Read more
• Jean Tinguely was a Swiss artist who made outrageous Rube-like machine sculptures. They’re a whole lotta fun – go check them out!
• Like building domino rows and knocking them over? This artist built the King of Domino rows – it lasts for about 15 minutes!
• Watch the Honda Rube Goldberg machine video