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Title: To Engineer Is Human : The Role of Failure in Successful Design by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0-679-73416-3 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 March, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.32 (25 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: How Things Don't Work
Comment: With entire books on the pencil and on bookcases, Petroski has established himself as an author who knows how to make anyone look at everyday items in a different light. Whereas these books explain how objects work, in "To Engineer Is Human," Petroski cites why engineers are responsible for design flaws that cause failure. Being a professor of civil engineering, Petroski shows his expertise in this area. This book is for those who are interested in studying engineering, are already engineers, or are just interested in the "why" of accidents. To be able to understand this book, though, you should do some research on these accidents because Petroski assumes you have heard of them. These include the DC-10 accident in 1979 in Chicago, the 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, and the tragic 1981 Hyatt Regency Skywalk disaster, which killed 114 people.
Petroski is clever with his chapter headings, such as "Success Is Foreseeing Failure" and "When Cracks Become Breakthroughs," which could be considered good rules for civil engineers to follow. I think this is a great book for those interested in engineering, if they have done their homework before coming to class.
Rating: 4
Summary: Accessible even to my grandmother
Comment: In this enlightening book, Petroski, who is professor of civil engineering, has succeeded admirably in conveying what engineering is and what engineers do in a manner that is accessible even to my grandmother, i.e., the general public. His presentation, although somewhat repetitive, is clear and sprinkled judiciously with humor. Moreover, it is illustrated with familiar analogies, and also numerous mechanical and civil engineering examples including everyday objects such as paper clips, toys and knives.
To engineer is to design, 'making something that has not existed before'. Petroski provides insights into the design process (which involves computers extensively nowadays) and its limitations, and also the means employed by engineers to prevent failures in their designs.
He emphasizes, however, that it is not possible to anticipate all possible ways a design can fail and thus failures inevitably occur because engineers are, after all, humans. Numerous examples of catastrophic structural failures throughout history are presented and discussed. All involved the tragic loss of lives (for instance, the collapse of two crowded suspended walkways onto the crowded floor of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency hotel in 1981) except the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows bridge in Washington State in 1940.
Petroksi also discusses the failure analysis or forensic engineering that is performed in the wake of a catastrophic design failure to understand how and why the failure occurred. He argues convincingly throughout the book that understanding such design failures can advance engineering more than successes. Design failures, like other failures in life, should be embraced, rather than denied or ignored, and learned from. Great engineers, and great people in general, are the ones who heed George Santayana's famous dictum: 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
Rating: 2
Summary: To Engineer is Human
Comment: A little wordy. Suggsted for serious work not for casual reader.
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Title: The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0679740392 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Invention by Design; How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0674463684 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Remaking the World : Adventures in Engineering by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0375700242 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Pencil : A History of Design and Circumstance by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0679734155 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 10 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design by HENRY PETROSKI ISBN: 1400040507 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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