Heath Robinson

[king arthur]

I had cause to look up the origin of this phrase a little while ago. I had learned that one of the early computers used by the code breakers at Bletchley was called the Heath Robinson because it looked like the kind of machine that he would draw in his cartoons.

So the definition is apparently something that is overly complicated and contrived for the simple task it performs.

Yet, ever since time immemorial, I and I'm sure everybody else I've heard using it, mean it to be something which is cobbled together in an amateurish way, something that was improvised out of non-standard components and only just about functions.

Am I wrong or did anyone else think it meant that too?

What other phrases have you been using wrong for years without knowing?

[Turtle Shed]

So the same as a Rube-Goldberg machine then.

[GliderRider]

Frederick Rowland Emett was another person known for his outlandish machines. His designs appeared and the 1953 Festival of Britain and in the opening credits in drawing form of Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. Rowland Emett's Machines

The American equivalent is Rube Goldberg.

[98elise]

king arthur said:

I had cause to look up the origin of this phrase a little while ago. I had learned that one of the early computers used by the code breakers at Bletchley was called the Heath Robinson because it looked like the kind of machine that he would draw in his cartoons.

So the definition is apparently something that is overly complicated and contrived for the simple task it performs.

Yet, ever since time immemorial, I and I'm sure everybody else I've heard using it, mean it to be something which is cobbled together in an amateurish way, something that was improvised out of non-standard components and only just about functions.

Am I wrong or did anyone else think it meant that too?

What other phrases have you been using wrong for years without knowing?

I've always known it as cobbled together/improvised. I first heard the term in the military and that's what it meant. I've never heard it used for something over complicated.

[dudleybloke]

98elise said:

king arthur said:

I had cause to look up the origin of this phrase a little while ago. I had learned that one of the early computers used by the code breakers at Bletchley was called the Heath Robinson because it looked like the kind of machine that he would draw in his cartoons.

So the definition is apparently something that is overly complicated and contrived for the simple task it performs.

Yet, ever since time immemorial, I and I'm sure everybody else I've heard using it, mean it to be something which is cobbled together in an amateurish way, something that was improvised out of non-standard components and only just about functions.

Am I wrong or did anyone else think it meant that too?

What other phrases have you been using wrong for years without knowing?

I've always known it as cobbled together/improvised. I first heard the term in the military and that's what it meant. I've never heard it used for something over complicated.

Same here, some of my Heath Robinson fixes have lasted longer than oem parts!

[Cold]

[CammyN]

Cold said:

Thanks for posting.

Heath Robinson books are sought after by collectors,

Here is his invention, the cinema car

[Soloman Dodd]

GliderRider said:

Frederick Rowland Emett was another person known for his outlandish machines. His designs appeared and the 1953 Festival of Britain and in the opening credits in drawing form of Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. Rowland Emett's Machines

The American equivalent is Rube Goldberg.

On a similar theme Tim Hunkin and Will Jackson's water clock on Southwold pier is fun.

And Tim Hunkin designed all the quirky attractions in the amusement arcade.