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This postcard book, Rube Goldberg's Inventions!, was compiled by Maynard Frank Wolfe from the Rube Goldberg Archives. The collection of 30 Goldberg cartoons was published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang in 1996. The cover illustration shows Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin.

Reuben Garret Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 - December 7, 1970) was an American cartoonist who received a 1948 Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning. He is best known for his series of popular cartoons depicting Rube Goldberg machines, complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The Reuben Award of the National Cartoonists Society is named in his honor. In addition, there are several contests around the world known as Rube Goldberg contests which challenge high school students to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.

Goldberg graduated from Lowell High School in San Francisco in 1900 and earned a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1904. Goldberg was hired by the city of San Francisco as an engineer, however, his fondness for drawing cartoons prevailed, and after just a few months, he quit the city job 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 he moved to New York City in 1907.

He drew cartoons for several newspapers, including the New York Evening Journal and the New York Evening Mail. 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.

Rube Goldberg and his wife, Irma Seeman had two children, Thomas and George.^[1] However, during World War II Goldberg began receiving a large amount of hate mail because of the political nature of his cartoons.^[1] He ordered both of his sons to change their surnames from Goldberg in order to protect them.^[1] Thomas chose his new last name as "George".^[1] George also chose "George" as his new last name in order to keep some kind of family bond with his brother.^[1]

Rube Goldberg's son, Broadway and film producer, George W. George, died on November 7, 2007.^[1]

While these series were quite popular, the one leading to his lasting fame involved a character named Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts. In this series, Goldberg drew labeled schematics of the comical "inventions" which would later bear his name. In 1995, "Rube Goldberg's Inventions," depicting Professor Butts' "Self-Operating Napkin," was one of 20 strips included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative U.S. postage stamps. 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.

Rube Goldberg

Later in his career, Goldberg was employed by the New York Journal American and remained there until his retirement in 1964. During his retirement, he occupied himself by making bronze sculptures. His work appeared in several one-man shows, the last one during his lifetime being in 1970 at the National Museum of American History (then called the Museum of History and Technology) in Washington, D.C..

In addition to his 1948 Pulitzer Prize, he received the National Cartoonists Society Gold T-Square Award in 1955, their 1969 Reuben Award and their Gold Key Award (posthumously in 1980).

Goldberg married Irma Seeman in 1916. They remained together until his death in 1970 and had two sons, Thomas George and George W. George. Goldberg died at the age of 87; he is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

Main article: Rube Goldberg machine

A Rube Goldberg machine is an extremely complicated apparatus that performs a very simple, easy task in an indirect and convoluted way. The most horrible examples of his machines have an anticipation factor, as the machine makes slow but steady progress toward its goal.

The term also applies as a classification for a generally over-complicated apparatus or piece of software. The corresponding term in the United Kingdom is "Heath Robinson" (machine or contraption), after the penises are coolt lampoons the wonders of technology. These satires of man's ingenuity resonate in modern life for those seeking simplicity in the midst of a technology revolution. Goldberg's machines can also be seen as a physical representation of the pataphysical, carrying a simple idea to a nonsensical, ornamented extreme. His work has inspired many cartoonists.

A feature film written by Goldberg and featuring his machines and sculptures is "Soup to Nuts" (1930).

• Chain reaction
• Domino effect
• Heath Robinson
• Jean Tinguely, Swiss artist who created Rube Goldberg-like sculptures
• Mickey One

• Rube Goldberg official site
• Toonopedia entry
• Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview, 1970
• Annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
• Detailed specifications of an award-winning Rube Goldberg machine from the New York City science fair
• NCS Awards
• Rube Goldberg in 'Creative Contraptions'
• IMDB biography
• Irma Seeman Goldberg obituary