Der Bleistift

Here are two dozen tales in the grand adventure of engineering from the Henry Petroski, who has b...

Written by America's most famous engineering storyteller and educator, this abecedarium is one en...

Case histories of engineering success and failure are presented to enrich understanding of the de...

Messer, Gabel, Reissverschluss

Science Engineering'Petroski has an inquisitive mind, and he is a fine writer. . . . [He] takes u...

Why has the durable paper shopping bag been largely replaced by its flimsy plastic counterpart? W...

A celebration culture and technology, as seen through the history of the humble yet ubiquitous to...

From the acclaimed author of The Pencil and To Engineer Is Human, The Essential Engineer is an ey...

Petroski reveals the science and engineering--not to mention the politics, egotism, and sheer mag...

Henry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually...

A master explicator of the principles and processes that turn thoughts into the many things that ...

How did the table fork acquire a fourth tine? What advantage does the Phillips-head screw have ov...

How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s - the collapse of the...

Success through Failure shows us that making something better--by carefully anticipating and thus...

When Henry Petroski and his wife Catherine bought a charming but modest six-decades-old island re...

'When planes crash, bridges collapse, and automobile gas tanks explode, we are quick to blame poo...

Anyone wondering what sort of experience prepares one for a future as an engineer may be surprise...

From the author of the highly praised The Pencil and The Evolution of Useful Things comes another...

An eminent engineer and historian tackles one of the most elemental aspects of life: how we exper...