Engineering Books

From: <Christopher>
Date: Sat May 18 2002 - 13:02:00 EDT

I got Henry Petroski's name wrong in that last post--here are the books I was talking about.

To Engineer Is Human : The Role of Failure in Successful Design The moral of this book is that behind every great engineering success is a trail of often ignored (but frequently spectacular) engineering failures. Petroski covers many of the best known examples of well-intentioned but ultimately failed design in action -- the galloping Tacoma Narrows Bridge... Read more

The Evolution of Useful Things
This surprising book may appear to be about the simple things of life--forks, paper clips, zippers--but in fact it is a far-flung historical adventure on the evolution of common culture. To trace the fork's history, Duke University professor of civil engineering Henry Petroski travels from... Read more

Remaking the World : Adventures in Engineering Engineers, Henry Petroski observes, are sometimes their own worst enemies, at least so far as communicating their work to the general public is concerned. Some engineers, of course, have been exceptions. One of the unlikely heroes of Petroski's Remaking the World, an entertaining foray into some of... Read more

Design Paradigms : Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering From classical temples to twentieth century towers, engineers have learned more about design from failure than from success. By showing how errors were introduced and how they might be avoided, this book suggests how better design quality and reliability may be achieved.

Invention by Design; How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing Want to invent a new paper clip? A new mode of electronic communication? You'll succeed only if you can meet the types of challenges Petroski identifies in this lucid and lively book. Readers with no ambitions of becoming inventors will still take a keen interest in these case studies of engineers... Read more

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=jIDX_vvfrXaV9XpvcFoJ0eaYYbqqowfnMD-SRmy4tn6rBfOZtXX6TmvJMz4J2JfvbcIixuAa36qCISYr">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.

___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)

<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a> Received on Sat May 18 13:02:00 2002