Heath Robinson

[bobbyp]

I know it means something totally OTT but who or what was Heath Robinson?

[andy hughes]

http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/whrobin.htm will give you all the details you need. W. Heath Robinson was a famous illustrator who drew amazingly complex drawings of ludicrously complex machines designed to perform very simple tasks. the humour lay in making fun of modern living, and the absurdity of unecessary complexities forced on the average person by the powers-that-be. In fact something that is 'Heath Robinson' is a device that is far more complex than it need be - or in general terms, an idea or notion that is very complicated.

[SimonMorton]

Heath Robinson was, I think, a tax accountant by background - so that's where the taste for over complexity must have come from.