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Invention by Design
by Henry Petroski

Invention by Design is the latest book by Petroski which concentrates on the design of everyday things around us. In his previous book, The Evolution of Useful Things, Petroski looked at how common everyday objects like paper clips and eating utensils came into being. In Invention by Design, Petroski is more interested in showing the design process behind various everyday objects as well as large-scale engineering projects like bridges and skyscrapers.

As in his previous book, Petroski says that the main reason for new inventions or improvement in current designs is due to perceived failure of the product to fulfill a task. One may think, for example, that a single design for a paper clip is good enough. But, as Petroski shows through the various patent applications for paper clips, new types of paper clips have been proposed. Some can hold a thicker stack of paper, some claim to stop paper clips tearing the paper, and so on. It really is amazing how many different types of paper clips can be proposed to do the 'ordinary' task of holding pieces of paper together.

In later chapters, Petroski looks at the design of the aluminium can, including the various pull/push ring designs and shows that sometimes, environmental or material concerns drive the design of a product. In the chapter on pencils, he gets more mathematical and gives an interesting analysis on why the points on lead pencils tend to break into a certain shape, based on the forces acting on it.

Moving on to bigger things, Petroski then looks at how products are designed nowadays by looking at the development of Boeing's 777 aircraft which was one of the first aircraft to be designed and developed via computers with almost no physical models being used. Next, he looks at various bridge designs (and disasters) before looking at the design of the San Francisco-Oakland bridge. Finally, he looks at some of the design requirements of todays super-tall buildings.

As with his previous books, this one has technical details but despite this, it remains general enough to be read by anybody who is interested in finding out how some of things and structures we take for granted came about and what kind of influences (material, economic, political, etc.) causes changes in design.

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Invention by Design by Henry Petroski

Invention by Design
by Henry Petroski