William Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist who drew whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives.
An illustration from The Adventures of Uncle Lubin (1902)
Robinson motifs on "Fairyland on China" nursery jug for Midwinter Pottery, c.1928
Title page of A Song of the English by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by W. Heath Robinson, c. 1914 (reprint)
Chaff, originally called Window or Düppel, is a radar countermeasure involving the dispersal of thin strips of aluminium, metallized glass fiber, or plastic. Dispersed chaff produces a large radar cro
W. Heath Robinson
…Robinson-like machines, with some inventions being direct references. During the Falklands War (1982), British Harrier aircraft lacked their conventional "chaff"-dispensing mechanism. Therefore, Royal Navy engineers designed an impromptu delivery system of welding rods, split pins and string which allowed six…
Modern US Navy RR-144 (top) and RR-129 (bottom) chaff countermeasures and containers. Note how the strips of the RR-129 chaff (bottom) are of different widths, while those of the RR-144 (top) are all the same width. The RR-144 is designed to prevent interference with civil ATC radar systems.
A factory worker producing chaff during World War II
A Lancaster dropping chaff (the crescent-shaped white cloud on the left of the picture) over Essen during a thousand-bomber raid
Two forms of RAF "Window" radar countermeasure: chopped aluminium wire and paper backed with aluminium foil