OW did you get that w How do you do it? How do you get away with it? How do you get them to fall for your stuff? How are you, anyway?” There you have the barrage of questions which are popped at me every day of my life, including days when the game is called ‘on account of rain. It's a good thing a humorous cartoonist has got a sense of humor. Or I might borrow from that jolly English expression and say, “It's fortunate my humor is not bad.” For that ment of the citi which has been blissfully unaware of my existence all these years, let me say that my profes Mike and Ike (they lock alike), Boob McNutt, and hundreds of other familiar characters off the Goldberg drawing board into the homes of some ten million Americans every day. sion, by extreme choice, is that of cartoon ist, having brought into this world such specimens as Boob McNutt, Foolish Ques tions, I Never Thought of That, and the type of cartoon which presents a series of com traptions working successive order to make up an invention to solve man’s earthly difficulties. Phis latter brainchild has proved my moat ring device. In this field I have able to turn ink into gold by a few strokes of my pen. In bl nd white, I consider myself the most p ic inventor in America today, I figure I turn loose about 400 inventions @ Here's a typical Rube Goldberg nutty invention—follow the letters and see how it worl 80 = Modern Mechanics an . Maybe it's not practical, but it’s good! Reproduced through courtesy of the McNaught Syndicate,Four hundred inventions a year, all of hem of exceedingly “nutty” brand, qualify Rube Goldberg, ‘the famous ‘artoonist, as one of the country’s most prolific and best paid inventors. The tise rcations ncverpcebeyodd the pen and ink stage doesn’t prevent him from “cleaning up” from them. year. And mine are not simple pieces of upon an tion, done in ink, of course, of an app which a husband r wear at the dinner table, I would guess that a first c en- gineer would have to spend a whole month ina machine shop before he could make the living and breathing duplicate. This bit of mechanical folderol which I ‘am now perusing looks like a strait-jacket Which is strapped around a man’s body after he is seated at table. Jutting out from its sides are prongs and clampers which per him to eat his soup with his right hand, hold his bread in his left, while the other gadgets are automatically pouring the coffce, pulling two pieces of sugar in the cup, then cream, holding the plates for the next course aloft, and directing things and the wife in general. You've got to admit that’s an invention that any man could use. Especially when he home from a heavy day’s work and is ished and his fraulein fetches the fod- der at a snail’s pace. To slap together that “Quick Lunch” machine for everyday use would run into money. So the farthest it is in print. My invention in ink goes ventions for December Me A e¥Cillion by RUBE GOLDBERG Famous Cartoonist as told to Alfred Albelli Rube Goldberg, cartoonist, as he looks today. out to about ten million newspaper and magazine read Most of the human problems. venting an instr i I wrestle with v I spent a long time in- ment for removing olives from long-necl bottles. Then there was another one for retrieving soap which slipped away from you in the bath-tub. I've got to admit, however, that there’s one stickler that I haven't been able to overcome yet. That is, how to get your nickel back from a telephone coin box after you've failed to get a number. I don't suppose I could make any one believe that I draw up all those crazy in- ventions without having had a knowledge of mechanics and having spent considerable time in the engineering field. If the truth 8hmust he told, my own private mechanical series started in the flesh with a course in the College of Mining at the University of California. I went through a lot of processes myself and I came out of the other end a full- fledged mechanical engineer. I got a job in the City Engineer's office in San Fran- cisco at $100 2 month. My job was map- ping sewer pipes and water-mains. And when you folke out front there behold my mechanical jig-a-ma-jigs with a lot of pipes in them, you can remain calm and be cer- -tain that I know what I'm talking about. Back in those lean, unfruitful and obscure days I didn’t see any prospects ahead bet- ter than a raise into the next higher rung, which meant $150 a month. Today my pipe- lines which are fearfully lacking in the geometric refinements of those dimmer days, return to me an annual flow of $50,000. Naturally, I couldn't have just thrown away my beard and drawing tools back there in the engineer’s office and turned cartoonist. There had to be the elements, the talent and ability to draw as well as the Keen perception to select material for a possible market. Well, in the first place I was a born artist. At any rate, the ability RA PIG Tas stn Fes to sketch and draw was latent and just h to be coaxed to come out, The one who lies behind the secret of success, if I may indulge in the frank mission of my self-esteem, is Charles a sign painter of San Francisco who was th ‘one to ferret out my artistic potentialitie as they are sometimes called. I started o as a pupil and apprentice to Charlie Be when I was 11 years old. I got so excited about Mr. Beall’s attempt to bring out my art that I went in extra gantly for interior and exterior decoratin drawing sketches inside as well as outside the house, much to my parents’ displeasu as well as my own. Although Mr. settled down to a modest sign-painting bus ness, he was considered quite an artist. devoted three years of his spare time teacl ing me the rudiments of drawing. As the last gesture under his wing I drey an old violin, in pen and ink. It attracted wide notice, At least I thought it did. would not have traded that drawing for Corot, and any art connoisseur will tell yor that’s going some. My “Old Violin” was hung in the Board of Education rooms San Francisco for a great many Finally, I guess it got tired of ha (Continued on page 204)'CA00 CA% -Anrothers2.49 Profit! Pending). Clasely resem= and of Tosring. locomotive Nota tay, nor trick bora but eh—preferable to I moter car fost others Mund from FORDS TO. ‘Sella {tan at $4 No “HoUsp-To. ctualiy ybody wats diled in minutes by anyane, "Ho first im your locality wit ils levee orn. ‘Send $9-10 far Lumpis hore er nalts for deals PACIFIC COAST PRODUCTS CO., LTD.. 116 ‘Cahuensa Gd. Mi Sees ie Say 7 GLASSES! > Natural Eyesight tor ‘Mokes Them Unnecessary Send for FREE information Revolutionary Invention make: correct Neorsight, Farsight, Astigmatism Eyestrain, Weak Eyes, Failing Vision, Old Age Sight, Eye Muscle Trow fc, at home without glasses. NATURAL EYESIGHT INSTITUTE, Inc. Dept. 120-A ‘Lee Ai Calit. iComplete 110-volt Bleciic Light lant. Ideal for Farms, Camps and mmer Homes, ELECTRIC LIGHTS reste 51 39,00 funs household sappliances, yourself, Wiring, Fiatures and Lamps for Ftoomi, $17.50, Also larger, models D.C oe A.C. Write tor cecalar D. W. ONAN & SONS, 243 Royalston Are., MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. Install it simple, easy, atey Get. OIVE Start an experiments —“Write today for lg TTT iin’. ® + CHEMICAL INSTITUTE OF N. to Park Pics °Dupe Mth Nutty Inventions Paid Me Million (Continued from page 82) there, or probably somebody got tired, and today it may be seen hanging proudly in my father’s home. From that day on I could be found wist- fully staring out of windows, fashioning sketches in my imagination and dreaming of triumphs yet to be. I remember when I first took up mechanical engineering how every- thing was automatically translated in my mind into sketches and not into mathe- matical formulae. Toward my senior year at the University of California I began to fall away from serious types of drawing and drifted into the field of caricatures. The climax, the all-surpassing turning: point came in my last year at college. I had always penetrated to the funny side of it works. The course in analytic me- 3 amused me most that way. The apparatus which they constructed in that course was baffling and almost supernatural. The professor himself seemed like some one superhuman. He was a tall, gangling, wizened crony with a red beard and an Adam’s apple that kept bobbing all the time he talked. He also wore gold-rimmed glasses. Most of the time he looked like he was a part of the machinery. One particular morning the professor pre- sented us h a mechanism by which he could determine the weight of the earth. It was a mangled and complicated system of test-tubes, retorts, levers, dynamos and other instruments which, I frankly admit, I never deciphered. The professor rapped for attention, I distinctly remember, and as we all looked on breathlessly, for fear that ‘this might be some infernal machine, he announced to us in solemn accents that the engine before us was a barodick, I could have laughed right out, because it didn't mean a thing to me, and yet it was the funniest thing I have ever seen in motion. I never got over the barodick. Ten years had elapsed and one day the ion_ of that goofy contraption returned to me. The idea burgeoned into a grand reality, but that’s skipping ten years too lightly, Let us go back a little and get a view of the trials and tribulations of the rising cartoonist. That job in the ineer’s office blew up after three months. Shortly afterward I Thank You for Mentioning Modern Mechanics and Inventions for December When Writing to Adethought I had to go in for mining engineer- ing seriously, but I got one glimpse down into a mine shaft and then and there my nerves told me I was an artist. I subse- quently got a job on the San Francisco ‘hronicle at $8 a week. I drew pictures for the paper every day for three months, and not one of them was ever published. Finally I landed in the sports depart- ment and I drew fight pictures which got into the paper. Then the San Francisco Bulletin lured me away from the Chronicle; there was so much favorable talk about the Rube’s fight sketches, Then I looked for other horizons. New York was elected. I was 23 when I reached New York. I had resolved to strike out on my own. Five editors today can enjoy the privilege of saying that they threw me out of their offices when I first got to town. I was footloo: for only twelve days when the very perc ing editor of The Mail took a chance on me, and vice versa. The first series of my cartoons which clicked was the Foolish Questions number. T hit on that one quite accidentally. I had drawn a picture of a man who had just fallen out of a five-story window. As he lay in a heap on the sidewalk a lady chaneed to come along and she inquired, “Are you hurt?” In astonishment, he looked up and re- plied, “Oh, no. I'm just taking my beauty sleep.” That started the Foolish Question rage. I doped out all I could. But I was a mental- midget compared to the thousands which poured in from my new army of follower: J figure I received 50,000 Foolish Ques —and I was foolish enough to answer them. Of course, those answers appeared in synd cated cartoons, which was all part of the mysterious process of turning ink into what it takes to keep the wolf away. Tt was just about ten years ago that I decided to use my knowledge of mechanical engineering in my career as a cartoonist and artist. The combination has not been a barren pastime from a financial standpoint since it brought me some measure of fame and about $500,000, more or less. There’s a lot of magic hidden in a bottle of ink if you know how. Right now I’m busy on a very special invention. [’m trying to contrive an apparatus that will do all a drawing for me, but then it might take all ings to manufacture it! Thank You for Mentioning Modern Mechanies and? Inventions for December When Writing to Advertisers my life sav-, Make thin a Merry Christmas For your friends by giving them a year's subscription to This is the leading magazine in the field ‘of science and invention, written by experts Just send in your name and address, the mame and address of your friend (or friends) and a postal or express money order for $2.50 for each subscription ($3.00 out- side the United States) to Modern Mechanics Magazine, Fawcett Publications, Inc., 529 S. Seventh Street, Minneapolis, Minn. A beautiful Christmas card will be sent to those you subseribe for, telling them of your gift, and their names will be placed immediately on the subscription list, paper, aa ee i time, Sold dlnect’ from mor "Press. $5.90, Job fogs "and alk ‘The Kelsey Co, Send for my Book STRONG ARMS And BROAD SHOULDERS or 350 coin or Se stamps Mustrated, wt P aciehiy Weeion, Deauilly fieat"arength in your stoulders, aries and nd Eotag epee ‘Equal to a $20.00 Course , ANTONE BABII von cay homing pats ithe BP Azasem avenue WANTED MEN To Manufacture Metal Toys and Novel nd for Toy Soldiers, Animals, 5 and 10c Store Ashtrays, fe. We cooperate in selling goods Jou make; also buy them from you. invest needed to start and p_you build WE FURNISH CO. F Abotutety, if chmistsias Rusti h Se Metal Cast Products Company Dept. 2 1696 Boston Road ‘New York City 205