The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to Beas They Are.

Petroski, Henry

ISBN 10: 0679740392 / ISBN 13: 9780679740391

Verlag: Vintage, 1994

Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers G0679740392I2N00

Inhaltsangabe:

   How did the table fork acquire a fourth tine?  What advantage does the Phillips-head screw have over its single-grooved predecessor? Why does the paper clip look the way it does? What makes Scotch tape Scotch?

   In this delightful book Henry, Petroski takes a microscopic look at artifacts that most of us count on but rarely contemplate, including such icons of the everyday as pins, Post-its, and fast-food "clamshell" containers.  At the same time, he offers a convincing new theory of technological innovation as a response to the perceived failures of existing products—suggesting that irritation, and not necessity, is the mother of invention.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor: Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of more than a dozen previous books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina, and Arrowsic, Maine.

Bibliografische Details

Titel: The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday...
Verlag: Vintage
Erscheinungsdatum: 1994
Einband: Paperback
Zustand: As New
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: No Jacket