Rube Goldberg machines are delightfully over-complicated mechanisms used to complete simple tasks. But before a single domino ever fell or a precariously balanced bucket was tipped over in a real example, the machines existed on paper as cartoons. First printed in 1914, the machines get their name from the cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who penned technical illustrations of the imagined devices as the 2nd industrial revolution played out across the world. His ridiculously over-complicated cartoons featured ideas like the automatic weight-reducing machine and the self-operating napkin.
The outrageous machines served to hold up a mirror to a rapidly-changing society. As new factories and rail lines appeared seemingly overnight, the average worker was now – for the first time – expected to have proficiency with intricate machinery and manufacturing processes. Henry Ford’s latest invention, the assembly line, had only been created the year before Goldberg’s first contraption went into print. Though the cartoons offered a critique of industrialization, they did so lovingly, with an undeniable lighthearted humor that has come to define Rube Goldberg machines as much as their needless complexity.
6 Simple Machines: The Analog Tech Behind the Contraptions
Though Rube Goldberg machines always overcomplicate simple tasks with needless steps, each step in the process is typically fairly simple. Each is a version of one of the types of “6 simple machines.” The 6 simple machines include the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw. Dating back to ancient Greece, these six machines represent the fundamental ways humans use physics to create mechanical advantage to exert force on objects. It is by combining variations of these mechanisms into carefully choreographed chain reactions that humans have done everything from land on the moon to invent the all-time classic board game Mousetrap.
Though useful in innumerable ways and foundational to modern society, there is also something downright satisfying about watching the simple machines operate. Items rolling or sliding down inclined planes, the wedge of an axe chopping firewood, a pulley allowing one person to lift elephantine loads – there is a beauty to the simplicity of these machines which tickles the imagination.
Rock Bands and Commercial Brands: Modern Rube Goldberg Machines
Rube Goldberg machines have maintained their stature as delightfully fun examples of human creativity since Goldberg’s first sketch went into circulation, but they’ve fared surprisingly well in today’s modern age. As the world continues to modernize and digitize, there’s a growing appetite for cultural artifacts that make a distinction between the digital and analog.
Honda put together perhaps the world’s most famous Rube Goldberg machine for an advertisement titled “Cog,” which is often cited as “one of the greatest ads of all time.” The rock band OK Go, known for their impressive music videos, created a massive Rube Goldberg machine for their song “This Too Shall Pass,” which required 20 engineers and took over six weeks to design, build, and film.
On social media, the creator Joseph’s Machines has well north of 10 million subscribers across different platforms who all love his insanely elaborate and distinctly analog contraptions invented to complete simple tasks. Though over a century old, Rube Goldberg machines have only grown in popularity, especially as technology continues to trend towards sleeker, less engaging forms that do not allow users a peek under the hood at what makes them tick.
Image via cdrummbks, “rube goldberg“
Why We (Still) Love Analog
Like all retro technology, Rube Goldberg machines have a particularly pertinent place in culture right now for exactly that reason: one can figure out how they work. As is true with so many things from mid-century design, retro technology and Rube Goldberg machines possess that intangible analog charm. By simply watching and wondering, their inner mechanics can be picked apart and understood. Though screens and other digital technology can provide sleek, frictionless experiences, analog technology retains the advantage of engagement and interaction. It’s that physical presence and ability to spark curiosity that drives Oat Foundry’s analog approach, and is the reason Rube Goldberg’s series of jokes from over 100 years ago have snowballed into a beloved mainstay of culture to this day.
Such simple yet complex machinery inspired innovations such as our reimagined Split Flap display, which runs on entirely electrical gears.
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