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Here is my first prize winning machine from the Musuem of Scientific Discovery's 1998 contest!
Just what does an original Rube Goldberg machine look like? Rube Goldberg created hundreds of comical drawings, but his invention cartoons are our favorite. Here is his Automatic Alarm Clock:
For a fun time, go to the one and only official Rube Goldberg site. They have lots of pictures and information.
If you're a big Rube fan, then why not buy your own book containing color pictures of 30 crazy contraptions?!! It's called "Inventions" by Rube Goldberg and was compiled in 1996. The pictures will inspire you! Check your local bookstore or order it on-line through this link at Borders.com.
To see many more of Rube Goldberg's great drawings, try to find this out-of-print book, from 1983, called "Rube Goldberg: A Retrospective" by Philip Garner. Or, try borrowing it on inter-library loan from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA. It's nearly 100 pages of black and white R.G. cartoons.
Breaking news! It was recently reported that Nickelodeon has entered into an agreement with Rube Goldberg Incorporated. The following is a newswire quote from August 13, 1998.
The National contest is held for college students each year by Theta Tau, Purdue University . Their site has links on contest history, past winners, rules and judging, and of course, Rube Goldberg.
Check out the annual contest for high school students at Argonne contest. This event is held in Chicago, IL and allows high school teams to design machines with the same goal as the college contest. The 1999 machine goal: Place a golf ball on a tee.
The Musuem of Scientific Discovery, Harrisburg, holds an annual contest. Unfortunately, the museum is closing in the summer of 1999.
High school students, enrolled in an Applied Physics course in Washington State built Rube Goldberg machines, PLUS designed Web pages to describe them! Sorry, they removed their links, but I'll find someone else's soon.
Order an excellent video of recent national and local Rube Goldberg contests at Purdue University. I highly recommend the "Highlights" tape - it shows the best from recent years. It's a lot of fun! See crazy machines ranging from a life size "Rube Goldberg car" to miniture "Gilligan's Island", complete with music! Purdue only charges $12. If their link is still not working, write to them first at:
If you like to assemble (somewhat easy) kits and paint them, too, Marx toy company offers remakes of it's Rube Goldberg toy kits. Check out the company web page at this link. Look up the category Animated Hobby Kits. Here is an example of the Baby Feeder Kit:
A super site for Rube Goldberg and craft ideas is Build-It-Yourself. Look up the "top secret plans...!"
This site has some info. about a high school Rube Goldberg contest, with very impressive sketches of some steps. Balloons, simple circuits, mousetraps. If you need just one more idea, go here: Rube Goldberg Engineering.
Mr. Herbert has documented very nice pictures and detailed steps of his student's R.G. projects at Terrebonne High School, LA.
A 7th and 8th grade teacher's guidelines on R.G. projects is at Mt. Ararat Middle School in Maine. A great resource for teachers, including assessment of student's work, record keeping, and gathering materials. Look at the "teacher reflections" to see the many suggestions to decide the goal of the contest. Why not try to build a machine to swat a fly or peel a banana??
Another school site of science projects (plus Rube Goldberg) is at more projects.
Do you like board games like Mousetrap? It's still available in stores. How about the one from the 1960's called Crazy Clock Game? You may get lucky and find this one on the Ebay Auction. Prefer computer games? Then go to Sierra and get "The Incredible Machine" or "The Incredible Toon Machine". Check out Maxis for "Marble Drop". (Also look in local stores or on Ebay).
Here are some more great computer programs: "The Way Things Work" by David Macaulay and DK Multimedia. This one is also available in gigantic book form - get it at Borders.com! An arcade game with fun machine puzzles: "Gizmos and Gadgets", by the Learning Company, (web site unknown).
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