“Heath Robinson” and “Rube Goldberg device” are expressions for complicated machines named after cartoonists who drew such machines. William Heath Robinson was a British artist who specialized in such drawings. The first true cartoons were created by German artist Rodolphe Töpffer in the early 1800s. Robinson and Goldberg were among the first cartoonists to gain name recognition in this new medium. Robinson began his career as an illustrator of children’s books and began designing unlikely contraptions for which he would be best remembered. The term “Heath Robinson” soon found widespread use to describe any device that was unnecessarily complicated. In the 1940s, British scientists created one of the first modern computers, a code-breaking machine named Heath Robinson.
“Heath Robinson” is a British expression for a very complicated machine, especially one that needs constant adjustments to keep it running. A similar expression in the US is “Rube Goldberg device”. Both phrases are named after cartoonists who drew machines that employed complicated processes to achieve simple results. William Heath Robinson was an early 20th-century British artist who specialized in such drawings. One of the first modern computers, a code-breaking machine used during World War II, was named Heath Robinson in his honor.
Comics are a relatively recent art form, at least compared to drama or painting, which have been around for thousands of years. The first true cartoons were created by German artist Rodolphe Töpffer in the early 1800s. The cartoon appeared in American and European newspapers in the late 19th century. In the 1919s, hundreds of popular comics and cartoons were published in newspapers around the world. Robinson and Goldberg were among the first cartoonists to gain name recognition in this new medium.
Robinson, who usually went by his first name W. Heath Robinson, began his career as an illustrator of children’s books. In the first decade of the 20th century, he began designing the unlikely contraptions for which he would be best remembered. Machines were taking on an increasingly important cultural role at the time, and people appreciated cartoons that pointed out their flaws and impracticalities. Robinson’s “Testing Golf Clubs,” for example, portrays a three-plane device that uses pulleys, springs, and a giant wheel to simulate a golf putt, something a human could easily do. The machine appears to have been repaired many times and is frequented by numerous technicians, scientists and observers.
As early as 1912, British speakers were applying the term “Heath Robinson” to any device that was unnecessarily complicated. As modern technology was then in its very primitive stage, the saying soon found widespread use. American cartoonist Rube Goldberg began his series of popular comic book inventions in 1914, probably influenced by Robinson and other similar cartoonists. Goldberg’s designs were so popular that the so-called “Rube Goldberg device” became a widespread term for complicated machinery, much like “Heath Robinson” in England. Both expressions are still in use in the 21st century.
In the 1940s, British scientists created several early computers in an attempt to crack Germany’s encrypted transmissions. One of the first of these machines was nicknamed Heath Robinson because it was very complex and required constant maintenance to function properly. The device was soon replaced by more efficient early computers, such as the Colossus. However, it was an important stage in the development of modern computer technology.
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