A twentieth-century American cartoonist and sculptor. He was famous for his humorous diagrams of incredibly intricate machines designed to carry out simple tasks.
Note: A “Rube Goldberg contraption” is a machine with many apparently extraneous parts, which appears to have been designed by patchwork.
00:10
00:09
00:08
00:07
00:06
00:05
00:04
00:03
00:02
00:01
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
| a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal. |
Goldberg, Rube
American cartoonist who satirized the American preoccupation with technology. His name became synonymous with any simple process made outlandishly complicated.
Learn more about Goldberg, Rube with a free trial on Britannica.com.