Rube Goldberg: Inventions!
Rube Goldberg is so renowned for his zany and splendidly overcomplicated "inventions" that his name has made it into dictionaries as an adjective. "Used for describing Any very complicated invention, machine, scheme, etc., laboriously contrived to perform a seemingly simple operation" is the entry in Webster's New World Dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the adjective means "accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply." The inventions appeared in newspapers every day from 1914 to 1964 as a single panel of drawings with an elaborate caption. Wolfe, a photojournalist who also holds patents for product design, presents a collection of Goldberg's inventions, comic strips, editorial cartoons, and sketches and provides a biography of Goldberg. The reader is easily lost in contemplation of such Goldbergian wonders as "Simple Way to Open an Egg without Dropping It in Your Lap," "Simple Orange-Squeezing Machine" (below) and "Easy Way for Tired Tourist to Enjoy Italian Art."EDITORS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.