Examines the process of engineering design and explains what can be learned by studying unsuccessful designs and the reasons for their failure

Essays discuss libraries, art, computers, engineering students, time, books, reading, baseball cards, the federal budget, Christmas, and the metric system

Analyzes the common pencil, citing it as an example of engineering excellence, looks at its origins and the history of its production, and provides reasons for its survival into the computer age

Product Description: From classical temples to twentieth century towers, engineers have learned more about design from failure than from success. The concept of error, according to the author of Design Paradigms, is central to the design process. As a way of explaining the enduring aspects of engineering design, Henry Petroski relates stories of some of the greatest engineering successes and failures of all time...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

A history of the great nineteenth- and twentieth-century bridges and the engineers that built them covers James Eads and the Mississippi River bridge, Othman Ammann and the George Washington bridge, and others. Reprint. 30,000 first printing. NYT.

Presents case studies of inventions by engineers, explaining how they resolve technical difficulties, and how they make their inventions socially acceptable and economically feasible (view table of contents)

Exploring the role of engineers in transforming and shaping the modern world, the author of The Evolution of Useful Things elucidates the principles of engineering as he looks at such achievements as the English Channel tunnel, the Panama Canal, and the Hoover Dam. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

Tracing the evolution of the book and its companion, the bookshelf, an intriguing study ranges from the scrolls of antiquity to the modern-day volume, explaining how the art of book storage evolved, and discusses such topics as libraries, bookselling, book collection, and book buying throughout history. Reprint. 30,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

Presents case studies of inventions by engineers, explaining how they resolve technical difficulties, and how they make their inventions socially acceptable and economically feasible

A professor of civil engineering considers ordinary objects as works in progress, taking readers inside the creative design process and revealing the fluidity that accompanies the shape of chairs, lightbulbs, toothbrushes, door knobs, and light switches, among other commonplace objects. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

The author describes his teenage years in the Cambria Heights section of Queens during the Eisenhower era and his job delivering the Long Island Press, work that taught him valuable lessons in commitment, labor, community-mindedness, and responsibility.

In a new collection of incisive essays, the author of The Evolution of Useful Things offers a close-up look at a variety of major projects that set the stage for bold new challenges in engineering, art, and architecture, assessing the achievements and risks associated with pushing the limits of technology, including the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11th. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Product Description: Design pervades our lives. Everything from drafting a PowerPoint presentation to planning a state-of-the-art bridge embodies this universal human activity. But what makes a great design? In this compelling and wide-ranging look at the essence of invention, distinguished engineer and author Henry Petroski argues that, time and again, we have built success on the back of failure--not through easy imitation of success...read more

Product Description: An examination of the commonplace things of everyday life which reveals them to be the marvellous feats of engineering they actually are. It ponders a host of techno-trivia questions - how the fork got its times, how the paper clip evolved, how the Post-It note came to be - and provides us with the answers that both astonish and challenge the imagination...read more

Product Description: A celebration culture and technology, as seen through the history of the humble yet ubiquitous toothpick, from the best-selling author of The Pencil.From ancient Rome, where emperor Nero made his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth, to nineteenth-century Boston, where Charles Forster, the father of the American wooden toothpick industry, ensured toothpicks appeared in every restaurant, the toothpick has been an omnipresent, yet often overlooked part of our daily lives...read more

Product Description: From the acclaimed author of The Pencil and To Engineer Is Human, The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our world’s most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources...read more

Product Description: Success through Failure shows us that making something better--by carefully anticipating and thus averting failure--is what invention and design are all about. Petroski explores the nature of invention and the character of the inventor through an unprecedented range of both everyday and extraordinary examples--illustrated lectures, child-resistant packaging for drugs, national constitutions, medical devices, the world's tallest skyscrapers, long-span bridges, and more...read more

Sometime about 30,000 years ago, somebody stuck a sharp rock into a split stick—and presto! The axe was born. Our inquisitive species just loves tinkering, testing, and pushing the limits, and this delightfully different book is a freewheeling reference to hundreds of customs, notions, and inventions that reflect human ingenuity throughout history.From hand tools to holidays to weapons to washing machines, An Uncommon History of Common Things features hundreds of colorful illustrations, timelines, sidebars, and more as it explores just about every subject under the sun. Who knew that indoor plumbing has been around for 4,600 years, but punctuation, capital letters, and the handy spaces between written words only date back to the Dark Ages? Or that ancient soldiers baked a kind of pizza on their shields—when they weren’t busy flying kites to frighten their foes?Every page of this quirky compendium catalogs something fascinating, surprising, or serendipitous. A lively, incomparably browsable read for history buffs, pop culture lovers, and anyone who relishes the odd and extraordinary details hidden in the everyday, it will inform, amuse, astonish—and alter the way you think about the clever creatures we call humans.

Product Description: Written by America's most famous engineering storyteller and educator, this abecedarium is one engineer's selection of thoughts, quotations, anecdotes, facts, trivia, and arcana relating to the practice, history, culture, and traditions of his profession...read more

Product Description: When planes crash, bridges collapse, and automobile gas tanks explode, we are quick to blame poor design. But Petroski, known for his masterly explanations of engineering successes and failures, says we must look beyond design to the interdependency of people and machines within complex socioeconomic systems undreamt of by designers...read more