Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing

Format:	Paperback 256 pages

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Synopsis

In this book, Petroski delves deeper into the mystery of invention, to explore what everyday artifacts and sophisticated networks can reveal about the way engineers solve problems. Engineering entails more than knowing the way things work. What do economics and ecology, aesthetics and ethics, have to do with the shape of a paper clip, the tab of a beverage can, the cabin design of a turbojet, or the course of a river? How do the idiosyncrasies of individual engineers, companies and communities leave their mark on projects from Velcro to fax machines to waterworks? "Invention by Design" offers an insider's look at these political and cultural dimensions of design and development, production and construction. Henry Petroski's previous books include: "To Engineer Is Human", which was developed into a BBC television documentary; "The Pencil": "The Evolution of Useful Things"; and "Engineers of Dreams".

Book details

Published
28/08/1998

Publisher
Harvard University Press

ISBN
9780674463684

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Jacket review

Petroski light-heartedly though soundly exposes the so-called engineer's thinking, which from its position within the field of science and technology is more concerned with designing than with calculating. The book makes elegant connections between the design features of a variety of "engineering products." These are discussed in the most natural-seeming of series; from paper clip, pencil and zipper, via problems of water and air transport, to designs for bridges and skyscrapers. The reader is, as it were, trained to be an inquisitive designer. Scattered throughout the book are brief mental exercises in the shape of entertaining questions regarding designed details of the real world (Why are ashtrays in aircraft glued shut? What structural precautions need to be taken if a complete oil platform, whose length is greater than the height of the highest building in the world, is to be moved from a horizontal to a vertical position?) This arrangement explains why the book is required reading for many a student. But Petroski also achieves the necessary depth whenever he explains in detail the principles and processes which lie behind existing and widely known products...["Invention by Design"] does comprise an outstanding source of knowledge and inspiration as much about history as about design approaches. -- Marc Maurer "Archis [The Netherlands]"