The Evolution of Useful Things
How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are.
Published on 1. December 2010
304 pages
978-0-307-77305-0 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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Other editions
Additional editions
Henry Petroski
The Evolution of Useful Things
How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to beas They are.
Book
02/1994
Vintage Books
€16.50
Article exhausted; check different version
Petroski
The Evolution of Useful Things
Book
11/1992
Alfred A. Knopf
€42.08
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
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.
Content
- Intro
- Other Books by This Author
- About the Author
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 How the Fork Got Its Tines
- 2 Form Follows Failure
- 3 Inventors as Critics
- 4 From Pins to Paper Clips
- 5 Little Things Can Mean a Lot
- 6 Stick Before Zip
- 7 Tools Make Tools
- 8 Patterns of Proliferation
- 9 Domestic Fashion and Industrial Design
- 10 The Power of Precedent
- 11 Closure Before Opening
- 12 Big Bucks from Small Change
- 13 When Good Is Better Than Best
- 14 Always Room for Improvement
- Notes
- Bibliography
- List of Illustrations
- Also by Henry Petroski
