"KING OF GADGETEERS"

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 October 1944, Page 4

"KING OF GADGETEERS"

LATE HEATH ROBINSON

SYDNEY, September 16

Far from being “a kind of ingenious mad-hatter,” Heath Robinson, whose death at the age of 72 has been reported, was a trained and gifted artist long before he decided to adopt the comic line, states the “Sydney Morning Herald.” It is true that he was prone to wander about, but not, as was supposed, with his pockets full of qnotted string, nails, and pegs of wood, ready to invent such curious machines as he drew for the delight of a faithful public. When he wandered, he did so to seek “the mild adventure of unknown roads.”

People who laughed at his worldfamous pictures of gadgets and “engines” little knew how much forethought and concentration went into the “design” of those mirthful contraptions. Artistic verisimilitude was often achieved only after he had carefully studied his “models” in factories and workshops. “The more thorough my knowledge,” he explained, “the funnier my drawings were likely to be from the point of view of the manufacturers and engineers.” Moreover, he could always plead that his absurd mechanism, if constructed “according to plan,” would, perhaps, work—however dire the results.