To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design
How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s -- the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovative Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940? How did an oversized waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Henry Petroski, author of the acclaimed The Pencil, examines in...
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How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s -- the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovative Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940? How did an oversized waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Henry Petroski, author of the acclaimed The Pencil, examines in this engaging, wonderfully literate book. More than a series of fascinating case studies, To Engineer Is Human is a work that looks at our deepest notions of progress and perfection, tracing the fine connection between the quantifiable realm of science and the chaotic realities of everyday life. Library Journal Here is a gem of a book. Engineering professor Petroski raises the concept that past failure in engineering design is the handmaiden of future success and innovation. He discusses some monumental failureslike the collapse of elevated walkways in a Kansas City hoteland shows how they led engineers to advance their art to meet new needs. One chapter declares, ``Falling Down Is Part of Growing Up.'' His examples are mostly the honest-mistake kind, and not the sloppy design and testing, for instance, that results in recalls of new autos. But in marvelously clear prose, he gives valuable insight into the limits of engineering and its practitioners. A fine book for general and history-of-technology collections alike. Daniel LaRossa, Connetquot P.L., Bohemia, N.Y.
Prefacevii1Being Human12Falling Down is Part of Growing up113Lessons From Play; Lessons From Life Appendix: "The Deacon's Masterpiece,"354Engineering as Hypothesis405Success is Foreseeing Failure536Design is Getting From Here to There647Design as Revision758Accidents Waiting to Happen859Safety in Numbers9810When Cracks Become Breakthroughs10711Of Bus Frames and Knife Blades12212Interlude: The Success Story of the Crystal Palace13613The Ups and Downs of Bridges15814Forensic Engineering and Engineering Fiction17215From Slide Rule to Computer: Forgetting How it Used to be Done18916Connoisseurs of Chaos20417The Limits of Design216Afterword229Bibliography233Index245List of IllustrationsI.Cartoons illustrating public concern over engineering failuresII.Models of the ubiquitous cantilever beamIII.The Brooklyn Bridge: Anticipating failure by the engineer and by the laymanIV.The Crystal Palace: Testing the galleries and finding them soundV.The Crystal Palace and two of its modern imitatorsVI.Suspension bridges: The Tacoma Narrows and afterVII.The Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkways collapseVIII.The Mianus River Bridge collapse and its aftermath
\ Library JournalHere is a gem of a book. Engineering professor Petroski raises the concept that past failure in engineering design is the handmaiden of future success and innovation. He discusses some monumental failureslike the collapse of elevated walkways in a Kansas City hoteland shows how they led engineers to advance their art to meet new needs. One chapter declares, ``Falling Down Is Part of Growing Up.'' His examples are mostly the honest-mistake kind, and not the sloppy design and testing, for instance, that results in recalls of new autos. But in marvelously clear prose, he gives valuable insight into the limits of engineering and its practitioners. A fine book for general and history-of-technology collections alike. Daniel LaRossa, Connetquot P.L., Bohemia, N.Y.\ \ \ From Barnes & NobleExamines our deepest notions of progress and perfection, tracing the fine connection between the quantifiable realm of science and the chaotic realities of everyday life. "Serious, amusing, probing, sometimes frightening & always literate."-- L.A. Times. B&W illus.\ \
