The Toothpick
Technology and Culture
Published on 26. November 2008
464 pages
978-0-307-49200-5 (ISBN)
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. Here, with an engineer's eye for detail and a poet's flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of this most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today's surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick's unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.
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. Here, with an engineer's eye for detail and a poet's flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of this most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today's surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick's unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.
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11/2008
Random House Inc
€24.60
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11/2007
Alfred A. Knopf
€45.72
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Person
Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of a dozen previous books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Content
- Intro
- Other Books By This Author
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue
- Chapter One: The Oldest Habit
- Chapter Two: Artifacts and Texts
- Chapter Three: Sucksacks and Whiskers
- Chapter Four: Poor Goose!
- Chapter Five: Out of the Woods
- Chapter Six: Made in Portugal
- Chapter Seven: Charles Forster in Pernambuco
- Chapter Eight: From Pegs to Riches
- Chapter Nine: A Family Affair
- Chapter Ten: Going Where the Wood Is
- Chapter Eleven: An Article for the Million
- Chapter Twelve: Advice and Dissent
- Chapter Thirteen: The Nasty Instrument
- Chapter Fourteen: The Toothpick Man
- Chapter Fifteen: Cords of Paper Birch
- Chapter Sixteen: Trade Secrets and Closed Doors
- Chapter Seventeen: Other Toothpicks
- Chapter Eighteen: New Uses for Old
- Chapter Nineteen: Maurice, Oscar, and the Industry
- Chapter Twenty: The Tragic Heiress
- Chapter Twenty-One: Exeunt Oscar and Maurice
- Chapter Twenty-Two: Foreign Affairs
- Chapter Twenty-Three: Old Gold and Good Wood
- HAPTER Twenty-Four: Boxed and Unboxed
- Chapter Twenty-Five: Woodpeckers and Other Dispensers
- Chapter Twenty-Six: Talking Round a Toothpick
- Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Fatal Martini
- Chapter Twenty-Eight: Improving on Perfection
- Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Butler Did It
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- Illustrations and Credits
- A Note About the Author
- Copyright
