Today is yet again a Monday. Everybody knows that in the town of Olympia. The citizens know that, the mayor knows that, the elders know that, the kids know that. So does Michael, and he is happy that he does. Because if he had forgotten about it, he would miss the most exciting thing of the week, which is also the only thing that really motivates him for the day.
Just as Michael successfully escaped from his friends' incredibly uninteresting soccer match, he rushed down the road and finally stopped at the familiar gate. When he tried to call the old genius geezer out, he remembered what Dr.Angus told him before, so he instead went over and pressed the the doorbell. However this time no sound emerged, not even a puff of smoke. This instantly confused Michael, but soon enough, the head of the old Doctor popped out from the window above. He put his fingers to his lips and disappeared. Then, the Doctor reappeared opening the door and signaled for Michael to enter, which he did.
As Dr.Angus pressed the door pad, causing the door to close and lock itself as usual, Michael asked: "Excuse Dr.Angus, allow me to ask a question, may I know why your doorbell noise wasn't there anymore? It kind of surprised me."
"Oh, erm, you know, I had to take it out for reasons."
"Was it because it was too loud? I mean, no offense, but it did scare a few people." Michael said as his memory rewound to two weeks ago and his tough looking however timid friend. "Did someone complain about it and hence forced you to stop it?"
The old Doctor's face immediately gave out a flinch at the word 'complain'. However, he still gave an awkward grin and said: "What? Oh no, it's not that, I just... Found it annoying."
Michael gave a deep sigh. "Oh well, It was cool while it lasted. But it might be for the best, you can never be sure of it."
Dr.Angus just ignored the boy and asked "So, what are you here for?"
"Um, nothing, I guess. I just wanted to give you a visit, and if it's possible I'd like to help you out on moving!"
"Ah," the Doctor gave a laugh, "don't you worry about that, I've actually finished it myself, it's not actually a very big house, thank you very much."
"Oh, um, well in that case," Michael said looking at his feet, "I'm sorry for disturbing you, Dr.Angus."
"Hey, don't be like that, I'd actually thank you for helping me for the last two weeks, and I really think we haven't actually talked much yet, so I'll actually let you ask a question this time, what would that be?"
"Well, could you let me take a look at the machines that you've built? I'm... a bit curious."
"Ha!" Dr.Angus exclaimed, snapping his fingers "I've been waiting for my chance to do exactly that!"
Then, Dr.Angus led Michael up to the warehouse. However, just along the way, Michael just can't stop but think that even the smallest and most ordinary-looking mechanical things that he sees are actually inventions. Then, Dr.Angus opened the door to the fabulous room, and opened Michael's eyes to what seems like a overly large wooden crate big enough to contain a rhino pelted with clocks and nails and a small steel chimney that gives off tremendous amounts of steam every now and then.
Michael was instantly stunned by this awkwardly-sized box that is taking up the whole room. It took a while before he found words to describe it. "It... It looks huge." He stuttered.
"You could say that," the Doctor said "but it's actually incredibly small for it can do at the same time! I call it the Opposite Rube Goldherg machine, or using the anachronism way of saying things, ORG machine. You do know what a Rube Goldberg machine is, right?"
"Yeah I do," Michael responded to Dr.Angus' sideways stare "I've read about it before somewhere, it's about doing things in an overly complicated way."
"Exactly, and my machine shall do the exact opposite. It can do so many things that would be complicated for the human brain and body to process in a short time, it has the parts of an oven, a coffee maker, printer, camera, television, stove, clock, calculator, detection machine, mini chemistry lab, drawing board and so much more! If the people here would appreciate genius men like me, this machine would be improved into more stable, useful and smaller versions and be spread around the streets for everyone!"
"Wow, it sounds extremely err... interesting! No offense, but to me it doesn't look really safe to be used right now."
"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious, boy. Just as I said just now, I actually need a bit more support, financially, I mean, and a bit more for the machine to fully operational."
"Well, good luck, I guess. But why did you want to make this, then?"
"Ah, you're digging into my history like a hungry reporter, huh?" Dr.Angus smiled towards Michael "Actually, Rube Goldherg is one of my idols, but actually what I like about him is how he designs devices with items that you could just buy in the convenience store. And that's exactly how I make most of my inventions, with normal things."
"No way!" Michael exclaimed "Even the PEM?"
"Exactly, Mike." Dr.Angus snorted "I'm not sure if your teachers would tell you this by any chance, but electromagnets work when electrical currents travel through metals that are ferromagnetic, meaning that they are can be attracted by magnets and also conduct electricity. That's how my invention worked. I took a weak U-shaped magnet, warped wires around it, connected them to the handle and covered the wires with a special foil."
"Wow, that's unbelievably simple, Dr.Angus. But I actually don't think that it would fully function just like that."
"Oh, well that's just the principle, it's... actually a lot more complex if you go into the details... and a bit of well, special materials are required for that."
"Okay then, but I must say that's still pretty cool." Michael commented "What other things are there?"
"Oh, there's so much more," Dr.Angus said as he grabbed the toolbox "hey Mike, you could sit on the ground, I going to anyway." He continued as the put his hand over the glass piece and pressing parts of it in a pattern. Instead, Michael did a half-squat so he could look better.
Finally, the toolbox opened, revealing the red shiny toolbox. Michael didn't realize it before, but if you were to look at it closely as it opened, it would expand it's bottom into a more flat rectangular box without a top.
"Ah, now would you look at that," Dr. Angus said as he displayed the tools inside his mechanical box, "everything you see here are tools I invented myself by merely tweaking the bits of the tools from the hardware store. For example, this is the 'jackhammer'. No, it's not the things people use to make holes in the ground. It clearly looks like a hammer, but what it can do is to knock very quickly and automatically when you hold this button. It allows you to hammer big nails without effort or much noise. There's also the 'self-driving-screw-driver', which looks just like a screwdriver but would you know it, it can spin automatically. Aha, there's also my automaticrank, it holds things tight just by pressing the button! Also, this one is the mini-chainsaw..."
Just as Michael successfully escaped from his friends' incredibly uninteresting soccer match, he rushed down the road and finally stopped at the familiar gate. When he tried to call the old genius geezer out, he remembered what Dr.Angus told him before, so he instead went over and pressed the the doorbell. However this time no sound emerged, not even a puff of smoke. This instantly confused Michael, but soon enough, the head of the old Doctor popped out from the window above. He put his fingers to his lips and disappeared. Then, the Doctor reappeared opening the door and signaled for Michael to enter, which he did.
As Dr.Angus pressed the door pad, causing the door to close and lock itself as usual, Michael asked: "Excuse Dr.Angus, allow me to ask a question, may I know why your doorbell noise wasn't there anymore? It kind of surprised me."
"Oh, erm, you know, I had to take it out for reasons."
"Was it because it was too loud? I mean, no offense, but it did scare a few people." Michael said as his memory rewound to two weeks ago and his tough looking however timid friend. "Did someone complain about it and hence forced you to stop it?"
The old Doctor's face immediately gave out a flinch at the word 'complain'. However, he still gave an awkward grin and said: "What? Oh no, it's not that, I just... Found it annoying."
Michael gave a deep sigh. "Oh well, It was cool while it lasted. But it might be for the best, you can never be sure of it."
Dr.Angus just ignored the boy and asked "So, what are you here for?"
"Um, nothing, I guess. I just wanted to give you a visit, and if it's possible I'd like to help you out on moving!"
"Ah," the Doctor gave a laugh, "don't you worry about that, I've actually finished it myself, it's not actually a very big house, thank you very much."
"Oh, um, well in that case," Michael said looking at his feet, "I'm sorry for disturbing you, Dr.Angus."
"Hey, don't be like that, I'd actually thank you for helping me for the last two weeks, and I really think we haven't actually talked much yet, so I'll actually let you ask a question this time, what would that be?"
"Well, could you let me take a look at the machines that you've built? I'm... a bit curious."
"Ha!" Dr.Angus exclaimed, snapping his fingers "I've been waiting for my chance to do exactly that!"
Then, Dr.Angus led Michael up to the warehouse. However, just along the way, Michael just can't stop but think that even the smallest and most ordinary-looking mechanical things that he sees are actually inventions. Then, Dr.Angus opened the door to the fabulous room, and opened Michael's eyes to what seems like a overly large wooden crate big enough to contain a rhino pelted with clocks and nails and a small steel chimney that gives off tremendous amounts of steam every now and then.
Michael was instantly stunned by this awkwardly-sized box that is taking up the whole room. It took a while before he found words to describe it. "It... It looks huge." He stuttered.
"You could say that," the Doctor said "but it's actually incredibly small for it can do at the same time! I call it the Opposite Rube Goldherg machine, or using the anachronism way of saying things, ORG machine. You do know what a Rube Goldberg machine is, right?"
"Yeah I do," Michael responded to Dr.Angus' sideways stare "I've read about it before somewhere, it's about doing things in an overly complicated way."
"Exactly, and my machine shall do the exact opposite. It can do so many things that would be complicated for the human brain and body to process in a short time, it has the parts of an oven, a coffee maker, printer, camera, television, stove, clock, calculator, detection machine, mini chemistry lab, drawing board and so much more! If the people here would appreciate genius men like me, this machine would be improved into more stable, useful and smaller versions and be spread around the streets for everyone!"
"Wow, it sounds extremely err... interesting! No offense, but to me it doesn't look really safe to be used right now."
"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious, boy. Just as I said just now, I actually need a bit more support, financially, I mean, and a bit more for the machine to fully operational."
"Well, good luck, I guess. But why did you want to make this, then?"
"Ah, you're digging into my history like a hungry reporter, huh?" Dr.Angus smiled towards Michael "Actually, Rube Goldherg is one of my idols, but actually what I like about him is how he designs devices with items that you could just buy in the convenience store. And that's exactly how I make most of my inventions, with normal things."
"No way!" Michael exclaimed "Even the PEM?"
"Exactly, Mike." Dr.Angus snorted "I'm not sure if your teachers would tell you this by any chance, but electromagnets work when electrical currents travel through metals that are ferromagnetic, meaning that they are can be attracted by magnets and also conduct electricity. That's how my invention worked. I took a weak U-shaped magnet, warped wires around it, connected them to the handle and covered the wires with a special foil."
"Wow, that's unbelievably simple, Dr.Angus. But I actually don't think that it would fully function just like that."
"Oh, well that's just the principle, it's... actually a lot more complex if you go into the details... and a bit of well, special materials are required for that."
"Okay then, but I must say that's still pretty cool." Michael commented "What other things are there?"
"Oh, there's so much more," Dr.Angus said as he grabbed the toolbox "hey Mike, you could sit on the ground, I going to anyway." He continued as the put his hand over the glass piece and pressing parts of it in a pattern. Instead, Michael did a half-squat so he could look better.
Finally, the toolbox opened, revealing the red shiny toolbox. Michael didn't realize it before, but if you were to look at it closely as it opened, it would expand it's bottom into a more flat rectangular box without a top.
"Ah, now would you look at that," Dr. Angus said as he displayed the tools inside his mechanical box, "everything you see here are tools I invented myself by merely tweaking the bits of the tools from the hardware store. For example, this is the 'jackhammer'. No, it's not the things people use to make holes in the ground. It clearly looks like a hammer, but what it can do is to knock very quickly and automatically when you hold this button. It allows you to hammer big nails without effort or much noise. There's also the 'self-driving-screw-driver', which looks just like a screwdriver but would you know it, it can spin automatically. Aha, there's also my automaticrank, it holds things tight just by pressing the button! Also, this one is the mini-chainsaw..."
"Sorry, but excuse me Dr.Angus," Michael interrupted "I would not say that your... self-made inventions are boring, but could you maybe skip to the best parts please? Because the time...I mean I am more... Err..." Then, Michael stuttered at the words to maintain politeness.
Dr.Angus however immediately glanced at his wrist, then shouted "Great... Scott! It's way past the hour! I must taken too long to talk about my machines! I'm sorry, Mike, it looks like you need to return, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do, Dr.Angus, but what about those inventions you made? I'm sure you've made a lot more than just a toolbox!"
"Oh you'll see, it'll be a lot more than just 'a lot more'... But there's still time! With around 50 weeks in a year, I'm sure we'll be done by the end of that! But this is not the time to dilly-dally and talk about that! You need to return before another parent gets angry at me!"
"Wait, another parent?" Michael asks as he gets shoved out the door.
"I told you, go before it's too late! Goodbye now!" Then the old fellow disappeared behind the door, which is now blocked by a literal wall of bars and boards.
Michael tried to shout a few more questions, but he got no response, so he left the house in awkwardness.
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