Tuesday 17 June 2014

Transatlantic Differences

From the BBC

"I believe they called the buggy in the moon landings the Heath Robinson contraption," says Mickie Robinson, the artist's daughter-in-law, who married his youngest son Tom. "Every time I hear someone use his name I do feel very pleased."

I doubt it. One of those little differences with our American cousins which I learnt in my time working with them:-

Heath Robinson contraption (UK)


Rube Goldberg Machine (USA)

4 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Thanks for that. I read the BBC article earlier today and it struck me as a bit unlikely that Heath Robinson/Professor Branestawm had caught on over there.

JohnM said...

And possibly a difference that is going away.

I can't recall the last time I heard "Heath Robinson contraption" but I've seen "Rube Goldberg device" several times. Indeed the former brings 12,800 Google hits as against 275,000 for the latter.

Lola said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lola said...

Rube Goldberg. You might like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8cuuP4Jmio