Israeli Technion Students, Inspired by Rube Goldberg, Build Menorah Lighting Contraption

 

Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) became famous for his highly detailed cartoons depicting extremely complicated contraptions that executed very simple tasks in a complex, indirect way. These contraptions came to be known as Rube Goldberg machines.

Though Goldberg spent a lot of time drawing his funny machines, he didn't actually build them. But his eye for detail and use of oddball devices were an inspiration to Mechanical and Industrial Engineering students in the Robotics Lab at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, who used his techniques to build a machine that lights the Chanukah menorah.

Thought you could do it by just striking a match and putting it next to a candle or oil wick? Why would you, when instead you could do it with helium balloons, nitroglycerin, a toy car, falling dominoes, tubes, and whatever odds and ends you could find.

Enjoy!

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(A tip of the kippah and a copy of our new eBook, Jewish Humor on Your Desktop: The Complete Collection to Sheila Zucker for bringing this video to our attention.)