To Engineer is Human

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250228077
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Book Description
“Though ours is an age of high technology, the essence of what engineering is and what engineers do is not common knowledge. Even the most elementary of principles upon which great bridges, jumbo jets, or super computers are built are alien concepts to many. This is so in part because engineering as a human endeavor is not yet integrated into our culture and intellectual tradition. And while educators are currently wrestling with the problem of introducing technology into conventional academic curricula, thus better preparing today’s students for life in a world increasingly technological, there is as yet no consensus as to how technological literacy can best be achieved. " I believe, and I argue in this essay, that the ideas of engineering are in fact in our bones and part of our human nature and experience. Furthermore, I believe that an understanding and an appreciation of engineers and engineering can be gotten without an engineering or technical education. Thus I hope that the technologically uninitiated will come to read what I have written as an introduction to technology. Indeed, this book is my answer to the questions 'What is engineering?' and 'What do engineers do?'" - Henry Petroski, To Engineer is Human

To Forgive Design

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674065433
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Book Description
Argues that failures in structural engineering are not necessarily due to the physical design of the structures, but instead a misunderstanding of how cultural and socioeconomic constraints would affect the structures.

Success Through Failure

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691180997
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
This book examines the importance of engineering design as well as society's ability to respond to design flaws.

The Existential Pleasures of Engineering

Author: Samuel C. Florman
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466842369
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Book Description
A classic examination of how engineers think and feel about their profession and its philosophy. “A useful read for engineers given to self-scrutiny, and a stimulating one for the layman interested in the ancient schism between machines and men’s souls.” —Time Humans have always sought to change their environment, building houses, monuments, temples, and roads. In the process, they have remade the fabric of the world into newly functional objects that are also works of art to be admired. Now as engineering plays an increasingly important role in the world while coming under attack for all manner of sins, one must wonder about the nature of the engineering experience in our time. In this, the second edition of his popular Existential Pleasures of Engineering, Samuel Florman perceptively explores how engineers think and feel about their profession. Dispelling the myth that engineering is cold and passionless, Florman celebrates it as something vital and alive. He views engineering as a response to some of our deepest impulses, rich in spiritual and sensual rewards. Opposing the “antitechnology” stance, Florman brilliantly emerges with a more practical, creative, and fun philosophy of engineering that boasts pride in his craft. First published in 1976, this classic book is essential reading for anyone curious about what wonders we have wrought. “Gracefully written . . . refreshing and highly infectious enthusiasm . . . imaginatively engineered.” —The New York Times Book Review

The Essential Engineer

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307473503
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
From the acclaimed author of The Pencil and To Engineer Is Human, The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our world’s most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources. While the scientist may identify problems, it falls to the engineer to solve them. It is the inherent practicality of engineering, which takes into account structural, economic, environmental, and other factors that science often does not consider, that makes engineering vital to answering our most urgent concerns. Henry Petroski takes us inside the research, development, and debates surrounding the most critical challenges of our time, exploring the feasibility of biofuels, the progress of battery-operated cars, and the question of nuclear power. He gives us an in-depth investigation of the various options for renewable energy—among them solar, wind, tidal, and ethanol—explaining the benefits and risks of each. Will windmills soon populate our landscape the way they did in previous centuries? Will synthetic trees, said to be more efficient at absorbing harmful carbon dioxide than real trees, soon dot our prairies? Will we construct a “sunshade” in outer space to protect ourselves from dangerous rays? In many cases, the technology already exists. What’s needed is not so much invention as engineering. Just as the great achievements of centuries past—the steamship, the airplane, the moon landing—once seemed beyond reach, the solutions to the twenty-first century’s problems await only a similar coordination of science and engineering. Eloquently reasoned and written, The Essential Engineer identifies and illuminates these problems—and, above all, sets out a course for putting ideas into action.

Remaking the World

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375700242
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Science/Engineering "Petroski has an inquisitive mind, and he is a fine writer. . . . [He] takes us on a lively tour of engineers, their creations and their necessary turns of mind." --Los Angeles Times From the Ferris wheel to the integrated circuit, feats of engineering have changed our environment in countless ways, big and small. In Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering, Duke University's Henry Petroski focuses on the big: Malaysia's 1,482-foot Petronas Towers as well as the Panama Canal, a cut through the continental divide that required the excavation of 311 million cubic yards of earth. Remaking the World tells the stories behind the man-made wonders of the world, from squabbles over the naming of the Hoover Dam to the effects the Titanic disaster had on the engineering community of 1912. Here, too, are the stories of the personalities behind the wonders, from the jaunty Isambard Kingdom Brunel, designer of nineteenth-century transatlantic steamships, to Charles Steinmetz, oddball genius of the General Electric Company, whose office of preference was a battered twelve-foot canoe. Spirited and absorbing, Remaking the World is a celebration of the creative instinct and of the men and women whose inspirations have immeasurably improved our world. "Petroski [is] America's poet laureate of technology. . . . Remaking the World is another fine book." --Houston Chronicle "Remaking the World really is an adventure in engineering." --San Diego Union-Tribune

Design Paradigms

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521466493
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
Case histories of engineering success and failure are presented to enrich understanding of the design process.

An Engineer's View of Human Error

Author: Trevor A. Kletz
Publisher: IChemE
ISBN: 9780852955321
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
This title looks at how people, as opposed to technology and computers within plants, are arguably the most unreliable factor, leading to dangerous situations.

The Pencil

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0679734155
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Book Description
Henry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually and charmingly about its development over the centuries and around the world, and shows what the pencil can teach us about engineering and technology today.

The Road Taken

Author: Henry Petroski
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1632863618
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
A renowned historian and engineer explores the past, present, and future of America's crumbling infrastructure. Acclaimed engineer and historian Henry Petroski explores our core infrastructure from both historical and contemporary perspectives, explaining how essential their maintenance is to America's economic health. Petroski reveals the genesis of the many parts of America's highway system--our interstate numbering system, the centerline that divides roads, and such taken-for-granted objects as guardrails, stop signs, and traffic lights--all crucial to our national and local infrastructure. A compelling work of history, The Road Taken is also an urgent clarion call aimed at American citizens, politicians, and anyone with a vested interest in our economic well-being. Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and Petroski reveals the complex and challenging interplay between government and industry inherent in major infrastructure improvement. The road we take in the next decade toward rebuilding our aging infrastructure will in large part determine our future national prosperity.