Reuben ("Rube") Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883–December 7, 1970) was a Jewish American engineer-become-cartoonist who drew complex devices that performed ordinary tasks in extraordinary ways, often by means of the domino effect, a chain reaction, or a deus ex machina. He was inspired, he said, by the Big Bang, which created matter, time, and energy, setting the universe into motion using the physics of an Unmoved Mover.