One of the funny things about my gadgets is figuring out what to call them.  Kinetic sculptures?  Configurations?  Chain-reaction assemblies?  Gadgets?  A lot of times, people call my devices "Rube Goldberg gadgets" which is kinda erroneous.  My gadgets are kissing cousins to true Rube Goldberg gadgets, but they're in a separate class entirely.

I've always been a fan of Rube Goldberg gadgets myself.  As you might already know, Rube Goldberg drew a comic panel for several decades in the early part of the 20th century that depicted very complex machinery designed to do a simple task.  I've seen many RG gadgets over the years in animated cartoons, and in the past few years, there's been a lot of interest in the construction of RG gadgets in the real world and some of them are very impressive.  However, true Rube Goldberg gadgets are different from domino chains and my kinetic gadgets for several reasons...

1.  The basic units of RG gadgets are much more complex than kinetic gadgets.  RG gadgets in the real world use complex elements like mechanical linkages or elaborate ball-runs (Kugelbahnen).  Kinetic gadgets use simple elements like sticks, dominoes, and string.

2.  RG gadgets tend to use less elements than kinetic gadgets.  A typical RG gadget might use anywhere from ten to a hundred elements.  A kinetic gadget can run anywhere from a thousand sticks to maybe a million dominoes.

3.  RG gadgets are less reliable than kinetic gadgets.  My gadgets have a 50 to 90% chance of success depending on what I'm doing, and other domino tumblers have comparable success rates.  On the other hand, the various Rube Goldberg gadget competitions usually allow contestants anywhere from three to a dozen tries to get one successful run, and some of the RG gadgets seen on videos have taken hundreds of attempts.

4.  Kinetic gadgets are more flexible in design than RG gadgets.  Since sticks and dominoes are basic units that connect in simple ways, they can be arranged in a much wider assortment of configurations than RG devices.  You can put colored dominoes in a huge field that makes a photo-realistic picture, weave a stick bomb in the shape of a company's logo, or put clever-lever elements in a fractal pattern.  However, it's really hard to do the same with a RG gadget.

So, what IS a good name for my kinetic gadgets other than 'kinetic gadget'?  I'm still trying to figure that one out.  Since my gadgets kinda sorta grew out of domino tumbling, I suppose they can be called 'domino-like devices'.  However, I personally think that domino chains are on par with herringbone chains, stick bombs, and the like, so perhaps a more neutral name is needed.  'Chain-reaction gadget'?

As Kinetic King, I've considered 'Tim Fort gadget' as a contrast to 'Rube Goldberg gadget'.  However, dominoes have been around a lot longer than myself and even stick bombs were made by generations of school children before me, so perhaps 'Tim Fort gadget' is a bit too immodest.

So, does 'kinetic gadget' work for you?  Or does somebody have a really good idea for a name that encompasses domino tumbling, stick bombs, herringbone chains, clever-lever gadgets, string-a-lings, and any other device that hasn't been invented yet in this particular genre of kinetic art?

But I digress...