On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:07:27 -0000, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:

Was/is Rube Goldberg (that's in the USA, so called, version of
English!) the equivalent of the original UK Heath Robinson?

The only references i've ever heard relating to Rube Goldberg were for
bizarre chain-of-events scenarios in Half Life, using Garys Mod

Wikepedia has a good enough reference to both of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heath_Robinson

There was quite an argument from some merkins on a thread last year
claiming Heath Robinson was a Goldberg plagiarist.