Today in Labor History July 4, 1883: Rube Goldberg, who worked hard to make simple things outrageously difficult, was born. He was a writer, engineer, sculptor and cartoonist. Hired as an engineer to design San Francisco’s sewers in 1904, he quit after six months to become a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. In his 72-year career, he produced over 50,000 drawings and comic strips. In 1922, he was offered $200,000 for his comics ($2.3 million in today’s dollars). And he won a Pulitzer for his political cartoons. However, his contraptions were meant to be a satire on the social and economic havoc wrought by rapid industrialization, and the fact that technology that was meant to simplify people’s lives could have the opposite effect.