The starter
‘Rube Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. Now known as Rube Goldberg machines, these contraptions, devices, or apparatuses are deliberately over-engineered or overdone machines that use an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles and live animals to perform a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.
‘For 55 years Goldberg’s Pulitzer Prize winning cartoon drawings of complicated machines and gadgets satirized government policies, which he saw as excessive. His cartoons combined simple machines and common household items to create complex wacky and diabolically logical machines that accomplished mundane and trivial tasks. Rube Goldberg is the only proper name included in Webster’s Dictionary as an adjective, referring to “accomplishing by extremely complex, roundabout means what seemingly could be done simply.”‘ — rube machine.com
The Official Rube Goldberg Website
Mouse Trap Contraptions
Mouse Trap @ Hasbro
Peter Fischli David Weiss
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
High School Rube Goldberg Science Class Contest
Domino Day
Rowland Emett
‘Tower’ @ LoveJordan
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Mouse Trap
‘Mouse Trap is a board game first published by Ideal in 1963 for two or more players. Over the course of the game, players at first cooperate to build a working Rube Goldberg-like mouse trap. Once the mouse trap has been built, players turn against each other, attempting to trap opponents’ mouse-shaped game pieces. Each player is represented by a mouse-shaped game piece which travels along a non-continuous, roughly square-shaped path around the game board from the start to a continuous loop at the end. The object of the game is to trap all of one’s opponent’s mice using the game’s Rube Goldberg-style mouse trap. The trap begins with a crank which turns a set of gears. This begins a series of stages which ends in a cage being lowered over the “cheese wheel” space on the board, which is one of six spaces in the ending loop of the game path.’ — BoardGameGeek
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The Westing Estate
The 2011 National Collegiate Rube Goldberg Machine Contest winner the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The task of their machine is to water a plant. The UW-Stout team’s machine entitled “The Westing Estate” takes 135 steps to complete this task and includes a church, mine shaft, gazebo, gardens, water pump and water wheel, two catapults and about two dozen steel ball tracks.
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Peter Fischli & David Weiss Der Lauf der Dinge
‘Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go) is a 1987 art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects, resembling a Rube Goldberg machine. The machine is in a warehouse, about 100 feet long, and incorporates materials such as tires, trash bags, ladders, soap, oil drums, and gasoline. Fire and pyrotechnics are used as chemical triggers. The film is nearly 29 minutes, 45 seconds long, but some of that is waiting for something to burn, or slowly slide down a ramp.’ — Icarus Films
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Rube Goldberg Machine… But With GUNS!!!
‘I wonder how many hours of Matt’s life have been spent wondering how to avoid publicly committing a felony.’ — Zomboinie
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The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
‘The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, held annually at Purdue University in Indiana and organized by the Phi Chapter of Theta Tau, a national engineering fraternity, bring Goldberg’s cartoons to life as a way of helping students transcend traditional ways of looking at problems, taking them into the intuitive chaotic realm of imagination. The resulting inventions are collections of bits and pieces, parts of now useless machines, cobbled together to achieve an innovative imaginative, yet somehow logical contraption to meet the annual contest challenge. Previous challenges have included dispensing an appropriate amount of hand sanitizer, watering a plant, replacing an incandescent light bulb with a more energy efficient design, assembling a hamburger, juicing an orange shredding 5 sheets of paper one-by-one, casting a ballot, peeling an apple, and putting a stamp on an envelope.’ — rubemachine.com
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School Science Projects
‘seekmariaXD Thanks to your video im doing an amazing 5th grade project I tweeked some things to suit me and changed it up a little butthanks to you I actually have a base on what to start with. superman3343 That sounds great đ u should send me a vid when its done daveedwards3324234 This is pointless. There’s supposed to be something cool that happens at the end of it. I built a machine in 6th grade that lit small fires at various points around a certain area, each of which cooked a different meal, and one of which began a process of roasting a chicken. And in the end we all sat down and ate the shit like men, with our hands. Ha! I muse at your small minded experiment. superman3343 Do you feel proud of yourself? đ halfbuc you are awesome (not) MadameSponge Guys leave him alone. Hes a kid, calm down. geez. tommy560987 hello my name is fucky Mc fuckerstun superman3343 whatever. I don’t need to take this from some 8 year old on the internet.’ — youtube
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World’s largest Rube Goldberg machine
‘The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers team smashed its own Guinness world record for largest Rube Goldberg machine with a 300-step behemoth that flawlessly accomplished the simple task of blowing up and popping a balloon. The team spent more than 5,000 hours constructing the machine that accomplished every task ever assigned in the competition’s 25-year history, including peeling an apple, juicing an orange, toasting bread, making a hamburger, changing a light bulb, loading a CD and sharpening a pencil.’ — Purdue University
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Domino Day
‘Domino Day was a world record attempt for the highest number of toppling domino stones, organized from 1998-2009 by Endemol Netherlands. Together with Weijers Domino Productions of Robin Paul Weijers, also known as Mr. Domino, parties teamed up to set a new world record. The production was mainly organized at the WTC-Expo in Leeuwarden, Netherlands and broadcast live on television across Europe. The current and standing world record of 4,491,863 toppled dominoes was set by a group of German dominoes enthusiasts at the final Domino Day in 2009. At the height of Domino Day’s popularity in 2002, the television broadcast attracted over 41 million viewers.’ — DominoFans.com
Over FOUR Million Dominoes – It’s A New World Record
New record – 4.345.027 dominoes!
New World Record… 4.491.863!
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Clockwork
‘This is Clockwork, my fifth major K’nex ball machine, and my largest and most complex K’nex structure to date. It took 8 months to build in my bedroom, has over 40,000 pieces, over 450 feet of track, 21 different paths, 8 motors, 5 lifts, and a one-of-a-kind computer-controlled crane, as well as two computer-controlled illuminated K’nex balls.’ — Austin Granger
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Rowland Emett’s Dream Machines
‘Rowland Emett was an English cartoonist and constructor of whimsical kinetic sculpture. Much of his career was spent designing and supervising the building of what he called his “things” â always with silly names such as The Featherstone-Kite Openwork Basketweave Mark Two Gentlemanâs Flying Machine, two copies of which exist. In the mid-1960s he was commissioned by Honeywell to create a mechanical computer, which he named The Forget-Me-Not Computer. In 1968 he designed the elaborate inventions of Caractacus Potts (played by Dick Van Dyke) for the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1973 his water powered musical clock, The Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator, was installed on the lower floor of the Victoria Centre, Nottingham, UK. His larger works, such as Emettland, went on extended tours, ending up in prestigious venues such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.’ — mech.mcmaster
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cuboro cugolino Kugelbahn “triple race”
‘In this cuboro cugolino marble run, there is a simultaneous triple race between a red marble and a blue marble. The total of six marbles are used on three different tracks, each of which is set up in a mirrored manner.’ — murmelwelt
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A machine to destroy an iPhone
‘The Rube Goldberg machine Joseph Herscher created to snooze an iPhone involves a toy car, a toy train, a toy tank, a broom, a hammer, a bucket of water and a catapult.’ — cult of mac
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Time Machine
The 2011 Purdue University Rube Goldberg machine shattered the world record for most steps ever successfully completed by such a machine. In 244 steps the “Time Machine” traces the history of the world from Big Bang to the Apocalypse before accomplishing the assigned everyday task of watering a flower. The record has been sanctioned by the Guinness Book of World Records and the World Records Academy.
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World’s Slowest Rube Goldberg Machine
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Marble Mountain
It has so far taken him three years and consumed almost his entire garage, but Ben Tardif has not yet finished his unbelievably intricate marble machine. A video shows his incredible hand-made contraption in action after years of painstaking work from the Californian builder. In the video, uploaded to YouTube by Ben on March 31, hundreds of silver marbles are hoisted up to the top of the mountain by a giant winch. In total 25 sections slot together to form a one-of-a-kind sculpture where every element is themed along its creator’s life. The marbles race along the course, fly over ski jumps, rocket round a rollercoaster, cross over a tiny rope bridge and trickle through a giant castle. Everything is custom-made and built almost entirely from wood, and Ben had to move his creation to a small warehouse after it got too big for his apartment after a year-and-a-half.
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Rube Goldberg machines by DoodleChaos
‘Hey everybody! I make rube goldbergs, chain reactions, and a bunch of crazy stuff. Tell me what you think! I believe that short complicated rube goldbergs can be more entertaining then long boring ones.’Â — DoodleChaos
‘Piano’
‘The Easy Life’
Pong Trick Shots
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Amazing Rube Goldberg type machine to fix ramen for dinner
‘I love how Japanese announcers always sound so excited.’ — Ninjujitsu
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A chain reaction machine with only toilet paper tricks!
‘As toilet paper has become a meme in this quarantine, I thought it would be fun to make a chain reaction with it to spend time. First I had to go out and buy it, and be judged by people… But I took the packs one by one every day and there was plenty of it in the store, no shortage because of me haha. It is difficult to make a chain reaction with toilet paper because they roll unpredictably because of imperfections, and they’re all different.’ — Kaplamino
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The Swish Machine: 70 Step Basketball Trickshot
‘This outdoor Rube Goldberg Machine goes around my entire yard, and swishes a basketball shot after 70 steps. This video was filmed in one take, meaning there are absolutely no hidden cuts or edits. The machine took a month to build and another month to successfully work.’ — Creezy
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p.s. Hey. ** T. J., Ho, T. J. ‘Dark Horse’ is, I think, the only film of his I haven’t seen. Okay, I need to polish the oeuvre off. Oh, yeah, ‘High Risk’. That was quite a good anthology, and kind of an influential thing back in the day. Volume 2 isn’t quite as strong, but it’s worth finding.** Jack Skelley, Those photos of completed vanished, ashen Lahaina are really mind-boggling. God, just awful. How was the Fair? Did you buy shit? Was ‘FoKA’ amongst the goods? Insta, of course, oh well. I’ll try to divine it. ** Misanthrope, Knowing you to the degree that I do, I think you would really like ‘Happiness’. I could be wrong, but I think you should plop down in front of it. American English is the wildest, messiest, most unstable language. I love it. I’m so glad I am a writer of it. We do get killer thunder/rainstorms here. And they usually only last about 15 minutes and then blue skies again. It sounds you have done birthdays as well as they can be done. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Thanks for making your opinion crystal clear. You’re hardly alone in that assessment, as you certainly well know. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Yeah, ‘Happiness’ is something. And what a great screenplay, wow. Envy. Well, a loss via a last minute penalty is harsh, but it doesn’t damn the team at least, right? ** Nightcrawler, Hi! Good to see you! You’re most welcome. You good? What’s up? ** oliver, Greetings and salutations, oliver! I can email you my mailing address. I’ll do that when I’m through here for the day. Thank you, I’m excited to see your zine. Best to you. ** Damien Ark, Hi, D. People hate it? More than they hate his other ones? Awesome to see you, as always. ** Mark, Hi! Precisely about Efteling. You nailed it. Plus they have an actual, really focused overall vision of what the place should be, and they don’t stint on the detailing. Etc. Oh, wow, you leave tomorrow! Great luck getting through the bag packing and arranging to have your house plants watered and all of that preemptory stuff. If I don’t talk to you before, max everything out. ** Bill, My suspicion is that he has a hard time getting his films financed, and I assume that’s why he has ended up making sequels to his most successful films. But I don’t know. I think there’s something of his in the works. ** John Newton, Hi, John. I’m doing reasonably well, you? Oh, yes, I read about that exhibition. I do know a bunch of the artists’ work, and I used know a few of them personally. Should be really something. I’m way out of the mainstream film world, but your friend’s assessment seem pretty right. I hope to always make films with small enough budgets that none of that bullshit comes into play. That’s a link to ‘Bruno’, yes? Okay, I’ll watch it. Thank you. When I lived in Holland, the popular saying there was ‘The French live to eat, the Dutch eat to live.’ Uh, no, Yury doesn’t eat any Russian food that I know of. He’s very vegan and eats a lot of grains and fruit and things. I’m going to have to go find a copy of ‘Idols’ and find that poem. I’m blanking, but it sounds like me. The friend who claimed that about Sade did go to a kind of experimental-ish school for rich kids, but, even so, I’m 99.9% sure he was just trying to protect his reputation with me. Have a swell start to your week. ** Probably, male, Hey, there! Really nice to see you! No, I don’t know Htrk â Work. That’s very cool to hear. I will go find it. Thanks. Most of the classics I like are too much about the language to be filmable, but, in the realm of the seemingly doable, I think that even though there’ve been a million films based on it, a really interesting film could be made of ‘Tom Sawyer’ maybe. I’ll check my email. I’m really, really behind on my mail, sorry. You good? ** Steve Erickson, Yes, the transgressive had its day. I do think we’re ripe for a revival given all the scaredy-cats out there. Great luck with The Wire obviously. That would be amazing. I’m not sure about The Quietus. Hm. That would a lot of fun. I greatly envy you going to that Anthology program. That sounds utterly dreamy. How was it? ** Darb, Cool: you liking it. My weekend was alright, all in all. Yours? I did not know that about the gloves, yikes. Yeah, I got my head split open with an axe when I was 11, so I had heavy surgery pre-80s. I … think I’m okay. ‘Old’ isn’t my favorite word, ha ha, but, you know, what can I do? It’s cool. The short fiction collection is kind of on the more sort transgressive side of what I do, but that’s the only commonality, I guess. Big up, big Monday! ** Cody Goodnight, Hi. I think I’m ok. Wow, I’d have to dwell in memory to pull up favorite ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes. That cornfield one is amazing. There’s one with a talking ventriloquist dummy that I remember liking. And, of course, duh, the bookworm post-apocalypse one. ‘Kickassia’ is way off my list, thanks. Boredoms are cool. I’m finally going to have the hopefully cheap thrill of seeing the new ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie today with a cheap thrills-seeking friend. Wish me luck, as I wish you all the luck with your impending daylight. ** Charalampos, Hi. God, insomnia is the worst. Sorry. As far as I know, ‘Closer’ is the only book of mine they’re returning to print. Sure would be nice because I think all of my books are o.o.p. in the UK. I’m not so fond of using the blog to promote my own work, but thanks, and I’ll think about a related post. Everyone, New set of poems online by our very own Charalampos aka Charalampos Tzanakis here. Hi from very slightly too warm Paris. ** malcolm, Hi! He’s your #1. Score! Since his films can’t really cost all that much money to make, relatively speaking, I don’t understand why he can’t seem to get funding. But, you know, the same with John Waters. What kind of insane, greedy world is the mainstream film world, I ask you? How did the short film premiere go? That’s very exciting! Will it get seeable by us punters at some point? I’m a mess, and yet I’m pretty happy too, if that commiseration helps. No, the strikes have no effect on ‘RT’. It happily got shot a bit before all of that came down. The post is going really well apart from the fact that we have zero funding and are having to do almost everything ourselves or by begging pros to help. But, yeah, we’re very excited about the film. Can’t wait to get it completely finished. I don’t know Calvin Westra, but now I will. Thanks! Super lovely to see you! Stick around when/if you can and want. ** Okay. Today the blog tries to pull up some shining examples of the Rube Goldberg effect. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hi!!
Right back, as promised. đ I was more active these past couple of days than I usually am in a month, haha. It was lovely. Whatâs been happening on your end? Howâs the film editing going? It feels like itâs been ages since I asked you about it.
Going back to my last love who asked you whether youâd like the ability to remember every single moment of your life â I think Iâd say yes as well. The same dilemma is present in my case, too; I mean, if Iâve blocked something out, I obviously canât remember it â and why Iâve blocked it out â but Iâd be willing to take that risk.
Maybe love will find himself in a funny mood and make your wish come true! Iâll keep my fingers crossed, just in case! Love trying to sell the tiny broken-off right foot of a wooden sculpture at a flea market for 15 euros, Od.
Hey Rube!!!
Kidding. No rubes here except the O.G. Love that tasty Krazy Kat era of cartooning. You can virtually hear the crowquill pen skritches in every bristly ‘stache he drew. My aunt had tons of his strips in her library of vintage cartoons.
That rube goldberg gun machine was… something. I guess you have to flog Mack Weldon to pay for all the hardware? Guns are such a disproportionately expensive hobby. It’s also a shame– mine –that Matt struck me as semi-handsome in that sleeveless sequined jacket.
The marble runs are my faves. I used to build my own. Much more satisfying than dominos to pull off. Was also why I loved the Marble Madness video game as a kid. (Maybe? I could’ve just been a pixel junkie.)
Good Neighbor Sam
Mickey One
Dennis, That beer pong one was insane. I’m wondering how many takes they took and over how long a period of time. I’m a little skeptical of the Purdue one, though; seems like too much machination that didn’t involve just regular gravity or whatever. But I love stuff like this. There’s something quite decadent about it.
Thanks, yeah, I had a really good time all 4 days. Gifts, cake, ice cream, family, friends, watching tennis, et al. Good stuff.
And is there something special about 52? I ask because I suddenly had really young guys (20!) flirting with me. Wth? Do I suddenly have a 52 sheen or something that brightens me up?
Oh, I’m almost 100% certain that “Happiness” is right up my alley, hahaha. I know a lot about it but just haven’t seen it. đ
Kayla and I got one of those pop-up thunderstorms when we were there (10 years ago! Wtf?). We ran down into a metro stop with a bunch of other people to avoid it for the 10 or 15 minutes it poured like crazy. Oh, and then right after we watched a guy wreck his scooter at an intersection because he was going to fast making a turn. He was okay, though.
I love Rube. A childhood fave from my distant past. Thanks for bringing him back. And the new Mission Impossible is a fave of mine. In many ways, a perfect type of film made by those types of people. I loved it.
There I was thinking that Rube Goldberg was a new name to me, but it turns out that his ideas have coloured rather a lot of the art and board games of my youth. Fascinating day, so thank you for this!
Today I got rained on super hard while walking to the Italian cafe for lunch. This may not be an isolated incident, so I’ve chosen to invest in a waterproof poncho for the apocalyptic future.
Der Lauf der Dinge, 1987, is a classic Rube Goldberg-ish thingy by Fischli & Weiss. https://www.facebook.com/earways/videos/570376236477565/ Can’t wait to get in the plane to Athens! We are staying with our friend Konstaninos who runs The Queer Archive https://www.thequeerarchive.shop/ Zine is on the way to you <3
Dennis– I luv Pee Wee’s Big Adventure Rube breakfast machine opening scene. After all his elaborate contraptioning, he takes only one bite!!! Printed Matter turned entire Geffen MOCA into alterna-lit madhouse. It seems our indie scene is somehow major? FOKA was at several venues & I signed buyers’ copies. It’s the number 2 best-selling Semiotexte title in August, right behind Cookie Mueller. I missed our friend Mark’s DC Zine due to my madhouse disorientation. I’ll nab one fr him direct. Hope Paris and film are c’est bon. Here’s more Gang radness: Amy is doing reading at N. Figueroa Bookstore this friday w/ Jeffrey McDaniel. luv ya laterz… Jack
The “urban exploration in closed shopping malls” program was interesting. It included 4 videos, each about half an hour. The first mall remained in decent condition, probably because work was still being done on the building. The others actually looked dangerous and unpleasant to walk through. One had a scene out of J. G. Ballard’s disaster novels, where the host walked through a J. C. Penney covered in mold and broken plastic to find a room full of greenery, thanks to sun and a hole in the roof. Today, I found the YouTube channel which produced one of the videos: https://www.youtube.com/@RangerRickTV
My August music roundup for Gay City News, which covers the latest album by Shamir and the debut album by comedian and former DAILY SHOW correspondent jaboukie, came out today: https://gaycitynews.com/august-lgbtq-music-roundup-shamir-jaboukie/
It does seem like there’s gonna be a backlash against the current preference for “wholesomeness” in art within the next few years. It’s paradoxical that so many queer young people identify as leftists but think seeing men wearing fetish gear in Pride parades is a violation of their consent. They’d flip out if they read Genet and Mishima rather than YA novels.
Here’s Ranger Rick’s playlist of his “Dead Mall” series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUS7h3diCqQ_G8QCYH-O-yx3MWG783EMy
Hey Dennis,
This comment is irrelevant to the content of this article. I was looking for recommendations for experimental literary publications that publish short-form fiction. Any haven for strange, radical, and/or grotesque shit… I feel like there was a thriving subculture for work like this in the 70s/80s (which I know you were a part of), but don’t know much about contemporary equivalents.
Thanks for reading!
Hi Dennis.
How are you? Iâm ok. I made a Rube Goldberg machine in high school, where a lifted a gate with a string to allow a car with a needle to pop a balloon. It was fun. I really like Pee-weeâs breakfast machine in Pee-weeâs Big Adventure as a Rube Goldberg machine. Same with Wallace & Gromitâs. Those are classics as well. I hope you enjoyed Mission Impossible! Well Suburban Knights was a bust. Can you imagine making something like LARPing boring? Well Doug Walker did, and at 2 hours he succeeded. Thankfully I listened to some Frank Zappa to ease the pain. I listened to all of his album Apostrophe and some of Hot Rats. Really great stuff. I was big into Zappa and The Mothers of Invention in high school. Well I watched Last Voyage of the Demeter in theaters today. It was incredibly underwhelming and boring. Shocked at how lame a Dracula film can be. Other than that, I listened to more Zappa and I think Iâm going to watch Catherine Breillatâs Romance tonight. Have a good day or night, Dennis!
hey dennis – yeah, it confuses me how there seems to be an endless amount of money to pump into superhero movies, terrible netflix original, and weird shit like hallmark movies, but (who i consider to be) the greats like todd and john can’t get a slice of the pie. super cheap movies to make and guaranteed a profit, if promoted correctly. frustrating. capitalism! also weird how both of them are rarely seen on streaming and are even hard to find as physical media – do these studios not want the films to make money?
premiere of the short went great, it was in a room of about 50 people. one of those people was joe swanberg! he was super nice. talked to a few people afterwards and they said that it felt really emotionally honest and raw and devastating, etc, all the things i was going for. so that’s good! waiting a while to post it publicly (hoping for a few festivals first) but i’ll email you a private link once i wake up (heading to bed as i write this)
how do you feel about having to do all the work on your film yourself? part of me likes working solo, because i get scared that if anyone else took control they wouldn’t do it to my liking (and i’m too much of a pushover to tell people what i reeeeaally want), but another part of me wishes i didn’t have to go through it all alone. it’s weird. anyways. off to bed. see you tomorrow. what’s the summer weather like in paris? lots of thunder and lightning here recently