Customer Reviews

Rube Goldberg: Inventions!

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have a real problem with this book. Namely, I can't get on a New York bus or subway without having dozen strangers leaning over me to look at the cartoons, first with curiosity and then suddenly bursting into hysterical laughter. It's that kind of book. The name "Rube Goldberg:" is supposed to vaguely resemble a machine more complicated than it should be. But as I discovered here, the inventions are more than over-complicated.. They are zany, zappy, and have the weird quantum logic of a parallel universe existing in some mad scientist's crazy mind. Take a "modest mosquito-bite scratcher", which is modest if you have dogs, cannons and worms all hooked up in tandem. Or a "self-scrubbing bath brush", which is easy once you teach a monkey to play outfield and hook the monkey up with a millwheel, a jack-in-the-box and an organ grinder. But why go on? Each time I open the book, one of the hundreds and hundreds of insane worlds plays itself out with kind of an eerie reality. Maynard Frank Wolfe has written a decent down-to-earth biography of the real Rube Goldberg , who (obviously!) started his long life as an engineer. But the amazing and endless cartoons are simply the funniest and best things around. At first, I thought of Leonardo de Vinci on LSD. But the more realistic affinity is Gary Larson. Both Larson and Goldberg turn science on its head, with their own creations both defying and DEIFYING logic. Now if only he'd invented a way to make strangers on a subway train go away! Let them buy their OWN book!

Rube Goldberg is justly famous for producing ingenious cartoons that show the most complicated ways imaginable to complete the most mundane of tasks. Any boomer, tweener, Gen-xer, teen, or kid who has played "Mousetrap" has witnessed a "Goldberg". This book reproduces his cartoons and reveals his three-fold genius - as a humorist, an artist, and a master mechanic. Today, the comic pages seem to be oriented either strictly towards children (Rugrats, et. al.), or adults (Doonebury, Dilbert and their kin); either type can be digested in seconds. Goldberg's genius was to produce a hilarious piece of work that could be enjoyed by all ages and actually made his audience think! Buy this book to revel in this master.

Finding this book was a real treat.I haven't seen much of his work for a long time.Little wonder,since Rube died in 1970.Goldberg is a national treasure,not only for his Inventions,but also for many other art forms.He graduated as a Mining Engineer,did Vaudville,wrote songs and plays,was in Motion pictures,Newsreels,Radio,and TV.He also took up Sculpture at the age of 80 selling about 300 works to private collectors,galleries and museums.
He created his own artform and was a resounding success by his early 30's and remained so the rest of his life of 87 years.His cartooning skills reflected the early years of cartoons where the message was more important than the artwork;which really came into its own and exploded after WWII.That is,more like the stuff we saw from Mutt and Jeff by Bud Fisher and R F Outault's Yellow Kid.Generally speaking,after the war,the great change in artwork after WWII became the world of comics,such as Dick Tracy by Chester Gould,Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff and what we see today in Doonesbury by Gary Trudeau.
I can't remember if I ever saw any of Rube's cartoons in color and there is no use or mention of color in the book.While he still produced well after color became popular in comics and cartoons,the question remains unanswered.On his website there is a Machine Contest 2005 in color,but it is obviously not his work.Does anyone know if any of Rube's cartoons were printed in color?
Overall,this is an excellent book and does a good job on the life and work of an artist who entertained so many for so long.

Rube is a role model for our 5 year old grandson, Bryan, who is busily engaged in creating wonderful, imaginative inventions using "found objects" of string, and spools, and boxes. Bryan also diagrams them..........he is the spiritual son of The Man, Rube.

Your efforts in preserving Rube's flights of creative imagination are being passed on to a new generation of young thinkers. Who knows where the ripples of this pebble cast upon the waters may wash ashore and take root?

I purchased this book to use in my HS physical science class. IT WAS A HIT! I mainly used it for transformation of energy. The kids were first pretty confused but it didn't take long to get the hang of Mr Goldberg's style. I have a student with autism who was just facinated and read it cover to cover. What a treasure to have that hisotry and "uniqueness" preserved!! Many thanks to the authors and family!!!!

I've shared this with my students and they love it... can't wait til we start our projects

Wonderful and creative drawings set imaginations free and give a glimpse into American culture of the times. A lot of fun to look at the detailed drawings, especially in the company of inquisitive 6 year olds! This is one that they'll probably remember in 20 years...

I bought this as a holiday gift for my soon to be 10 year old nephew; I thought he was at an age to be interested in creating inventions or imaginative contraptions. When the book did arrive I took a brief look through and it seemed like something that an adult would enjoy (like myself! - I certainly remember Rube Goldberg). My nephew seemed a little bit interested after seeing some of the comic illustrations but he wasn't so crazy about all of the text in the book. I need to reinforce his literacy. Regardless, this would be good for someone who loves reading and takes interest in imaginative invention building. I'll be taking a thorough read when I visit my nephew again and make him read me a chapter or two.

For whatever reason, although my son's totally facinated by Rub Goldberg things, there wasn't much of an interest for this book

The concept of accomplishing a ridiculously simple task with incredible complexity, is invented and taught here by Rube Goldberg.

As mechanical engineers in college, we used to play around with this concept quite often.

The use of unpredictable things in his cartoons (people, animals) make a cartoon look impossible, if it isn't enough already.

A plant being watered and growing (in a couple of seconds) to accompllish a task is to me, not possible, but at least predictable. An animal or person being heated up, causes Goldberg's desired effect only because he drew the human to do so. But for the human, the number of possible responses are many. We all know that the watered plant will do only one thing. Go up. The time suggested for it to do so; therein lies the humor.