GIF ~ Rube Goldberg Machine

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Rube Goldberg Machine

by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine

A Rube Goldberg machine, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg.

Since then, the expression has expanded to denote any form of overly confusing or complicated system.

For example, news headlines include...
"Is politician, Bill Thomas the Rube Goldberg of Legislative Reform?" and...
"Retirement 'insurance' as a Rube Goldberg machine".

Rube Goldberg's cartoons became well known for depicting complex devices that performed simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. 

Here's an example... see image below...

Goldberg's "Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin", 

which was later reprinted in the postcard book, Rube Goldberg's Inventions!, 

compiled by Maynard Frank Wolfe from the Rube Goldberg Archives. 

The "Self-Operating Napkin" is activated when... 

the soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, 

pulling string (B) 

and thereby jerking ladle (C) 

which throws cracker (D) 

past parrot (E). 

Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, 

upsetting seeds (G) 

into pail (H). 

Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), 

which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), 

setting off skyrocket (K) 

which causes sickle (L) 

to cut string (M) 

and allow pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin. 

Sometimes the inventions were to wipe the poo off his bum.

In 1931, the Merriam–Webster dictionary adopted the word "Rube Goldberg" as an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means.

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