Tech*Savvy*Students
Rube Goldberg - Achievements
Achievements
Goldberg won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for a political cartoon warning of the dangers of atomic weapons.
The Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. displayed a retrospective exhibition of his life's work in 1970, just weeks before his death. He was the first cartoonist to ever be so honored.
Rube Goldberg's invention cartoons were largely influenced by the "machine age" at the beginning of the century and by the complex new mechanisms invented to simplify life. Just as the last several decades have given us marvelous innovations in computer technology at an extremely fast pace, the same rapid advancement in new inventions was occurring at the turn of the century during the "machine age". Electricity, running water, telephones and the automobile were changing the way people lived and worked. New mechanical inventions for simplifying life were flooding the U.S. patent office. There were inventions for everything from automatic hat tippers to motorized shoe polishers.
Retrieved from http://www.mousetrapcontraptions.com/history-4.html
-
While working with the New York Evening mail, his cartoons received a wider audience as the newspaper was syndicated to the primary newspaper syndicate in USA named the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. By 1915, he earned the reputation of being one among the most famous cartoonists in the USA.
-
During this time he received offers from other well-known newspaper chains, however New York Evening Mail raised his salary and formed the Evening Mail Syndicate to give his cartoons an audience throughout the nation.
-
In 1915, he also took up the project of drawing cartoons to be used in silent movies. However, realizing the scale of work and finding it nearly impossible to complete without help, he dropped the project. The same year he created a cartoon character Boob McNutt. This comic was later syndicated by Star Company and earned a good fan following. He ended this comic in 1934.
-
In 1934, he shifted his focus from being a cartoonist to taking up magazine writing for a while. However, he returned to cartooning and took up work as an editorial cartoonist with the political newspaper New York Sun and worked there until his retirement in 1964. While working here, he drew a political cartoon on 22 July 1947 that earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1948.
-
Post retirement, he became a sculptor. Rube Goldberg along with other cartoonists founded the National Cartoonists Society in 1946. He also served as the first president of the Society and retained the position for two years.
Timeline
Retrieved from http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/rube-goldberg-6980.php
A Rube Goldberg Machine is the name given to any mechanical system that is elaborate and complex and used to perform simple tasks. Goldberg said that his inspiration for these machines was his fascination with technology and how people responded to it. He believed that people often take complicated approaches to solving simple problems rather than taking the direct route and making their own lives easier. He spent over 30 hours to perfect each drawing of the machines he illustrated in his comic strips.
Retrieved from http://www.famousinventors.org/rube-goldberg
