Heath Robinson

 

Heath Robinson

'How to Rise with the Sun'

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

I used the expression ‘Heath Robinson’ on my blog the other day. I didn’t give it a second thought until someone, DB, I believe, said he had looked it up to see if it meant what he thought it meant.

Heath Robinson is a British aphorism to describe a solution or gadget that is over-engineered for the task in hand, and completely impractical. A simple solution is overlooked for a far more complex improvised one.

More frequently, it describes a temporary, often ingenious solution to a problem, using whatever might come to hand in the vicinity. It’s usually rickety and prone to failure if not incessantly tinkered with.

First lessons in walking
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The phrase originates from William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) He was an English cartoonist and book illustrator from a family of artists and became well-known for his capricious drawings of impossibly complicated machines. For instance, a simple device like an egg whisk might employ winches, switches, cogs, and lengths of knotted string. Another could show a machine driven by steam from a kettle heated by candles.

The First World War (1914-1918) inspired Heath Robinson to imagine a series of bizarre secret contraptions for the opposing armies to out-manoeuvre each other. Among the many cartoons he produced was one for ‘an armoured bayonet curler.’

The phrase ‘Heath Robinson’ became a part of British armed forces slang during WWI and thereafter was adopted by the general public. In WWII (1939-1945) codebreakers at Bletchley Park called one of the early computing machines ‘the Heath Robinson.’

The American equivalent of Heath Robinson is Rube Goldberg, while the Danes have Storm Petersen.

Nick Park’s inventions in the ‘Wallace and Gromit’ films are worthy descendants of Heath Robinson.