U. of Wisconsin repeats as "Rube Goldberg" champs

For the second straight year, a team from the University of Wisconsin-Stout has won a national collegiate competition to build the best Rube Goldberg device. "Best" in parentheses, of course, as the contraption in question - named after a legendary New Yorker artist famous for cartoon creations in which machines turned a simple procedure into inordinately complex routines - showed how to water a plant. in 135 steps while recounting the story of a haunted Louisiana mansion.

As you can see in the video below, the winning entry - dubbed "The Westing Estate"- would have made the great Goldberg proud. And just to add a touch of authenticity, Goldberg's granddaughter was on hand for the competition, which took place at Purdue University and attracted about 2,000 spectators. In 2010, the University of Wisconsin-Stout similarly took home the top prize for its "Valley of the Kings" invention which recounted a chronology of events following the death of King Tut.