The Evolution of Useful Things - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Evolution of Useful Things write by Henry Petroski. This book was released on 2010-12-01. The Evolution of Useful Things available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.
The Pencil
The Pencil - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Pencil write by Henry Petroski. This book was released on 2011-02-16. The Pencil available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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 Evolution of Technology
The Evolution of Technology - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Evolution of Technology write by George Basalla. This book was released on 1989-02-24. The Evolution of Technology available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based upon recent scholarship in the history of technology and upon relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology. It challenges the popular notion that technology advances by the efforts of a few heroic individuals who produce a series of revolutionary inventions owing little or nothing to the technological past. Therefore, the book's argument is shaped by analogies taken selectively from the theory of organic evolution, and not from the theory and practice of political revolution. Three themes appear, and reappear with variations, throughout the study. The first is diversity: an acknowledgment of the vast numbers of different kinds of made things (artifacts) that have long been available to humanity; the second is necessity: the belief that humans are driven to invent new artifacts in order to meet basic biological requirements such as food, shelter, and defense; and the third is technological evolution: an organic analogy that explains both the emergence of novel artifacts and their subsequent selection by society for incorporation into its material life without invoking either biological necessity or technological progress. Although the book is not intended to provide a strict chronological account of the development of technology, historical examples - including many of the major achievements of Western technology: the waterwheel, the printing press, the steam engine, automobiles and trucks, and the transistor - are used extensively to support its theoretical framework. The Evolution of Techology will be of interest to all readers seeking to learn how and why technology changes, including both students and specialists in the history of technology and science.
The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics
The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics write by A. W. Moore. This book was released on 2012. The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book charts the evolution of metaphysics since Descartes and provides a compelling case for why metaphysics matters.
Small Things Considered
Small Things Considered - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Small Things Considered write by Henry Petroski. This book was released on 2007-12-18. Small Things Considered available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Why has the durable paper shopping bag been largely replaced by its flimsy plastic counterpart? What circuitous chain of improvements led to such innovations as the automobile cup holder and the swiveling vegetable peeler? With the same relentless curiosity and lucid, witty prose he brought to his earlier books, Henry Petroski looks at some of our most familiar objects and reveals that they are, in fact, works in progress. For there can never be an end to the quest for the perfect design. To illustrate his thesis, Petroski tells the story of the paper drinking cup, which owes its popularity to the discovery that water glasses could carry germs. He pays tribute to the little plastic tripod that keeps pizza from sticking to the box and analyzes the numerical layouts of telephones and handheld calculators. Small Things Considered is Petroski at his most trenchant and provocative, casting his eye not only on everyday artifacts but on their users as well.
