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Showing posts with the label Rube Goldberg

The Rube Goldberg Device

A sketch to a fan by Rube Goldberg.  From left to right: Mike and Ike (they look alike), Boob McNutt, Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, and Bertha. Max and Hannah Goldberg wanted a bright, secure future for their son Reuben.  Max was the police and fire commissioner for the city of San Francisco in the late 19th century, but rather than civil service, he saw his son Reuben’s future was probably better suited for engineering.  Reuben had shown early talent for drawing, and his parents started paying for professional art lessons when he was eleven, which would certainly be useful for a career as an engineer.  Reuben graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1904 with a degree in Engineering, and went right to work for the San Francisco Water and Sewers Department.  That degree paid off promptly, but just how much it would be worth in the end, no one could even guess. Reuben was restless, and after six months, he resigned his job with Water and Sewers to take an