The Rube Goldberg Machine delights. Named after the Reuben Lucius “Rube” Goldberg, a twentieth-century cartoonist, the machines are imaginative chain reaction devices that perform a simple task in a complicated series of steps.
The legendary cartoons of the 20-step contraptions to wipe someone’s face with a napkin and similarly absurd devices have inspired real-world attempts at such whimsical invention. Balls roll to knock toasters which send strings flying which tip yet another ball down a run into a hole sending a toy truck rolling and on and on. Each step is captivating, looking as though each part of the device is animated by some unseen hand.
Watching and inventing these devices involves something child-like. One cannot adhere to the strictures of efficiency and productivity that dominate adult thinking while inventing something so absurdly inefficient.
Akin to crafting miniatures, Goldberg Machines are useless. Like the machines, there is something irresistibly whimsical about tiny “cakes” carved from sponges, delicately painted to appear like a miniscule replica of a birthday cake. Miniature furniture, cooking utensils, bedding, and vehicles are charming because they are so enthusiastically impractical.
The place where such inventions occur is without a doubt in the home. Home is the place where sundry miscellany accumulates, and time can stretch out into boredom-inducing periods of languishing inconsequence. That is why the enforced homebound periods of 2020 produced some marvelous Goldberg Machines, such as the hilarious and impressive device for passing the salt.
In summertime, that quixotic season in which we all become homeschoolers, spend some time with the Swish Machine and other marvels.
