Editing W. Heath Robinson (section)

==Career ==
His early career involved illustrating books – among others: [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s ''Danish Fairy Tales and Legends'' (1897), ''[[One Thousand and One Nights|The Arabian Nights]]'' (1899), ''[[Tales from Shakespeare]]'' (1902), ''[[Gargantua and Pantagruel]]'' (1904),<ref>''The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais'' published by Grant Richards, London, 1904. Reprinted by The Navarre Society, London, 1921</ref> ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' (1908), ''Andersen's Fairy Tales'' (1913), ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' (1914), Charles Kingsley's ''[[The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby|The Water-Babies]]'' (1915) and [[Walter de la Mare]]'s ''Peacock Pie'' (1916). Robinson was one of the leading illustrators selected by [[Percy Bradshaw]] for inclusion in his ''[[Percy Bradshaw#The art of the illustrator|The Art of the Illustrator]]'' (1917–1918) which presented a separate portfolio for each of twenty illustrators.{{refn|group=note|The portfolio contained: a brief biography of Robinson, an illustration of Robinson at work in his studio, an explanation of Robinson's method of working. This was accompanied by a plate showing an illustration typical of his work and five other plates showing the work at five earlier stages of its production, from the first rough to the just before the finished drawing or colour sketch.{{r|Art-Illustrator-Review}} Robinson's coloured illustration shows a fantasy feast with naked cherubs.{{r|TAOTI-Palace-Robinson}}}}

Robinson served as a consultant at the [[Percy Bradshaw]]'s [[Percy Bradshaw#The Press Art School|The Press Art School]], a school teaching painting, drawing, and illustration by correspondence. The consultants commented on the work submitted by the students.{{r|Bryant-2018|p=32}} In the course of his work, Robinson wrote and illustrated three children's books, ''The Adventures of Uncle Lubin'' (1902), ''[[Bill the Minder]]'' (1912) and ''Peter Quip in Search of a Friend'' (1922). ''Uncle Lubin'' is regarded as the start of his career in the depiction of unlikely machines.

During the First World War, he drew large numbers of [[cartoon]]s, depicting ever-more-unlikely secret weapons being used by the combatants, and the American Expeditionary Force in France.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryant |first=Mark |year=2006 |title=World War I in Cartoons |location=London |publisher=Grub Street |pages=9, 17 |isbn=190494356X}}</ref> 

After the war, his work was included in the [[Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics#Painting|painting event]] in the [[Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics|art competition]] at the [[1932 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/920534 |title=W. Heath Robinson |work=Olympedia |access-date=4 August 2020}}</ref>
[[File:William Heath Robinson Inventions - Page 034.png|thumb|right|''Testing Golf Drivers'', a typical "Heath Robinson contraption".]]

As well as producing a steady stream of humorous drawings for magazines and advertisements, in 1934 he published a collection of his favourites as ''Absurdities'', such as:

*"The [[Wart]] Chair. A simple apparatus for removing a wart from the top of the head"
*"Resuscitating stale [[Big Four (British railway companies)|railway]] [[scone]]s for redistribution at the station buffets"
*"The multimovement [[Tabby cat|tabby]] silencer", which automatically threw water at serenading cats

Most of his cartoons have since been reprinted many times in multiple collections.

In 1935 the [[Great Western Railway]] (GWR) commissioned him to create a set of cartoons on the theme of the GWR itself, which they then published as ''Railway Ribaldry''. The Foreword (by GWR) notes that the cartoonist was given a free hand to re-imagine the history of the line for the amusement of its customers. The result is a 96-page softback book with alternating full-page cartoons and smaller vignettes, all on pertinent subjects.

The machines he drew were frequently powered by steam [[boiler]]s or kettles, heated by [[candle]]s or a spirit lamp and usually kept running by balding, bespectacled men in overalls. There would be complex [[pulley]] arrangements, threaded by lengths of knotted string. Robinson's cartoons were so popular that in Britain the term "Heath Robinson" is used to refer to an improbable, rickety machine barely kept going by incessant tinkering. (The corresponding term in the U.S. is ''[[Rube Goldberg machine|Rube Goldberg]]'', after the American cartoonist born just over a decade later, with an equal devotion to odd machinery. Similar "inventions" have been drawn by cartoonists in many countries, with the Danish [[Robert Storm Petersen|Storm Petersen]] being on par with Robinson and Goldberg.)

One of his most famous series of illustrations was that which accompanied the first ''[[Professor Branestawm]]'' book written by [[Norman Hunter (author)|Norman Hunter]]. The stories told of the eponymous professor who was brilliant, eccentric and forgetful and provided a perfect backdrop for Robinson's drawings.
[[File:"Fairyland on China" design.jpg|thumb|Robinson motifs on "Fairyland on China" nursery jug for Midwinter Pottery, c.1928]]
Around 1928,<ref>Midwinter pieces with the "Fairyland on China" designs bear a mark with the registered number "732612". This suggests that the surface decoration was registered in the UK during 1928, and that Robinson probably created the designs in that year.</ref> Robinson was commissioned to design a range of nursery ware for [[Midwinter Pottery|W.R. Midwinter]], a [[Staffordshire]] pottery firm. Scenes from sixteen [[nursery rhyme]]s (some illustrated with more than one vignette) were printed on ware ranging from eggcups to biscuit barrels, each with a decorative border of characterful children's faces.  Titled "Fairyland on China", the range was favourably reviewed in the trade press.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Peat|first=Alan|title=Midwinter, A Collectors' Guide|publisher=Cameron & Hollis|year=1992|isbn=0-906506-06-9|location=Moffat|pages=6–8}}</ref>

The last project Robinson worked on shortly before he died was illustrations for Lilian M. Clopet's short story collection ''Once Upon a Time'', which was published in 1944.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22713/lot/165/|title = Bonhams : ROBINSON (WILLIAM HEATH) an archive of original illustrations, proofs and dust-jacket artwork for the 1944 publication Once Upon a Time by Lilian M. Clopet and three autograph letters signed ("W. Heath Robinson") 25, Southwood Avenue, Highgate, N.6., 25 September 1943, 3 January 1944 and 9 August 1944 |publisher=Bonhams |access-date=20 August 2023 |date=2015}}</ref>

One of the automatic analysis machines built for [[Bletchley Park]] during the Second World War to assist in the decryption of German message traffic was named "[[Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)|Heath Robinson]]" in his honour. It was a direct predecessor to the [[Colossus computer|Colossus]], the world's first programmable digital electronic computer.