what was rube goldberg accomplishments?

Rube Goldberg was an engineer, inventor, cartoonist and sculptor, but his greatest accomplishment was probably in the social field. In the early 1900's, society struggled to evaluate the benefits of technology compared to the dependency it forced on ordinary people. As again today, there was mistrust, reluctance to change, and a disparity between the few who were wealthy enough to adapt to our world easily, and the rest of us. Rube was a great satirist, seeing the humor in it all, and helping us grow into the world we inherited.

He believed that most people preferred doing things the hard way. He believed that, instead of taking simple paths to goals, machines were a "symbol of man's capacity for exerting maximum effort to achieve minimal results."

http://mousetrapcontraptions.com/history-4.html

(Contrary to appearances, our government is not one of his satires.)

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Reuben Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970) was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor. Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways – now known as Rube Goldberg machines. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime including a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948 and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award 1959.[1]

Goldberg was a founding member and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society[2], and is the name sake of the Reuben Award which the organization awards to "Cartoonist of the Year". He is the inspiration for various international competitions, known as Rube Goldberg contests, which challenge participants to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.