INVENTION BY DESIGN HENRY PETROSKI PDF

Invention by Design has ratings and 20 reviews. Babak said: Henry Petroski’s previous bestsellers have delighted readers with intriguing stories about the. Buy Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing New Ed by Henry Petroski (ISBN: ) from Amazon’s Book Store. Everyday. Henry Petroski is an American engineer with wide-ranging historical and sociocultural interests. He earned a Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from.

Our recent titles dfsign available via Edelweiss. And those who inhabit the world of engineering will discover insights to challenge their customary perspective, whether their work involves failure analysis, systems design, or public relations. Henry Petroski provides a holistic view of the invention process. 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?

You will learn much about bridges and the distribution hfnry forces, buildings that sway in the wind and why pencils points break.

Ostensibly written for intelligent laypersons to give some understanding of how we got to the technological world in which we now live, it will probably be read and enjoyed as much or even more by engineering and product designers. For every product, one could list the defects and then find a way to improvise it. A History of Design and Circumstancewhich relates the history of the pencil to broader sociocultural themes. I learned a few new trivial things, but not enough for me to recommend it.

Petroski chooses nine different case studies to defend his thesis. Jul 14, Rick Sam rated it liked it Shelves: Jan 01, Nik rated it it was amazing. Petroski does a decent job at acknowledging how complex the design and engineering process is, and why it is important to have a multidisciplinary approach.

Refresh and try again. The writer has a good way of describing the history of design, I would have loved if the book had more engineering inside of it. And that’s exactly what it is.

Desiggn and illustrations from patent applications are particularly fascinating and are used well. It seems fascinating to think, how simple a paper-clip could be iterated and had about patents. An excellent introductory book to Invention and Engineering.

Jun 26, Grant rated it liked it. The focus of the book is how engineers approach problems.

INVENTION BY DESIGN by Henry Petroski | Kirkus Reviews

He graduated ehnry his Ph. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers unfamiliar with engineering will find Petroski’s enthusiasm contagious, whether the topic is the genesis of the Ziploc baggie or the averted collapse of Manhattan’s sleekest skyscraper. It is wonderful read for an engineer as well as general public.

Invention by design : how engineers get from thought to thing

The reader will truly get a “feel of engineering” in it. Henry Petroski is a civil engineering professor at Duke University where he specializes in failure analysis. Though the problems that engineers and inventors set out to solve may be different from those of other design specialists, Invention by Design proves that the many design decisions in which engineers are involved are as heavily influenced by the intangibly aesthetic as by the purely functional.

Infention do economics and ecology, aesthetics and ethics, have to do with the shape ihvention a paper clip, the tab of a beverage can, the cabin design of a turbojet, or the course of a river?

Invention by Design

Fell off imvention shelf while I was getting something else. Jul 13, Sylvia McIvers rated it petroskj it Shelves: The paperclip that can only be used in one direction, that becomes easily tangled in a box, or that tears the paper has led inventors to a cycle of improvements and patents.

Beavers and termites construct elaborate artifacts. On the fax machine, however, and particularly on the development of the BoeingPetroski flies to his customary heights.

Humans alone combine these two facilities to rapidly evolve artifacts. Subscribe to henrg information about forthcoming books, seasonal catalogs, and more, in newsletters tailored to your interests.

By examining the relationship between sesign invention of devices and their refinement over time by others, Petroski identifies design principles that engineers use to make things desogn.

This is the central theme in his study To Engineer Is Human: There was an error while adding the following items. Invention by Design offers an insider’s look at these political and cultural dimensions of design and development, production and construction. Media reporter, reviewer, producer, guest booker, blogger. As someone with a design background, I found myself drawn to the picture of engineers as world-shapers, builders.

Questions?

Here, he’s after a different audience, one interested in the philosophy and cultural study of the process of invention. Am failing to download it. He earned a Ph.