The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to Be as They Are.
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List of Illustrations
1.1 Blade of a scramasax. From British Museum, Anglo Saxon Guide.
1.2 Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century knives. From Singleton, A Chronology of Cutlery. Courtesy of Sheffield City Museums.
1.3 Late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century knives and forks. From Singleton, A Chronology of Cutlery. Courtesy of Sheffield City Museums.
1.4 Nineteenth-century knives and forks. From Singleton, A Chronology of Cutlery. Courtesy of Sheffield City Museums.
4.1 Eighteenth-century pin-making. From Diderot’s L’Encyclopédie.
4.2 A card of pins. Courtesy of Stephen Lubar, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
4.3 Johan Vaaler’s 1901 paper clip. From U.S. Patent No. 675,761.
4.4 Matthew Schooley’s 1898 paper clip. From U.S. Patent No. 601,384.
4.5 Cornelius Brosnan’s 1900 paper clip. From U.S. Patent No. 648,841.
4.6 Paper clips illustrated in Webster’s. By permission. From Webster’s New International Dictionary, 1st and 2nd eds. © 1909 and 1934 by Merriam Webster Inc.
4.7 William Middlebrook’s 1899 patent for a machine for making paper clips. From U.S. Patent No. 636,272.
4.8 Henry Lankenau’s 1934 Gothic paper clip. From U.S. Patent No. 1,985,866.
4.9 Clarence Collette’s 1921 frictioned Gem paper clip. From U.S. Patent No. 1,378,525.
5.1 Albrecht Dürer’s Portrait of Erasmus.
6.1 T. Woodward’s 1842 shawl pin. From U.S. Patent No. 2609.
6.2 Walter Hunt’s 1849 safety pin. From U.S. Patent No. 6281.
6.3 Shoe fitted with an early slide fastener. From U.S. Patent No. 504,038.
6.4 Late-nineteenth-century slide fastener. From U.S. Patent No. 557,207.
6.5 Gideon Sundback’s hookless fastener. From U.S. Patent No. 1,219,881.
6.6 B. F. Goodrich advertisement for Zippers. From Gray, Talon, Inc.
7.1 Shears with bent handle. From Agricola’s De Re Metallica.
7.2 Two-man frame saw being used to rip a board. From Diderot’s L’Encyclopédie.
7.3 Anthropomorphic hammer. From U.S. Design Patent No. 28,942.
7.4 A variety of nails. From Butterworth, The Growth of Industrial Art.
8.1 Three pieces of Vintage silverplate. From MacLachlan, A Collectors’ Handbook for Grape Nuts.
8.2 Forks with pronounced cutting tines. From MacLachlan, A Collectors’ Handbook for Grape Nuts.
8.3 A variety of forks. From Turner, American Silver Flatware.
8.4 Various forms of serving pieces. From Turner, American Silver Flatware.
8.5 Emily Post’s essential pieces of silver. From Emily Post, Etiquette.
8.6 Victorian dinner-table railway. From Coppersmith and Lynx, Patent Applied For.
8.7 Advertisement for medicine spoon. From Turner, American Silver Flatware.
9.1 Hammers with worn handles. From Himsworth, The Story of Cutlery.
9.2 Copper vases. From Viollet-le-Duc, Discourses on Architecture.
10.1 Puzzle jugs. From Jewitt, The Wedgwoods.
11.1 Ezra Warner’s 1858 can opener. From U.S. Patent No. 19,063.
11.2 Bull’s Head can opener. From de Bono, Eureka!
11.3 Steps in forming aluminum can. From Modern Metals.
11.4 One of Ermal Fraze’s many patents for self-opening can tops. From U.S. Design Patent No. 195,604.
11.5 Environmentally sound beer can from early 1970s. From Modern Metals.
12.1 Two schemes for cording beds. Reproduced by permission of Early American Life, © Cowles Magazines Incorporated.
13.1 Polystyrene clamshell for fast food. From Modern Plastics.
13.2 Chinese wheelbarrow. From Mayne, in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
13.3 Two-man hod. From Diderot’s L’Encyclopédie.
13.4 Sixteenth-century Western wheelbarrow. From Agricola’s De Re Metallica.
13.5 Bathroom in Hôtel Louis XIV. From Caplan, By Design. Drawing by Milton Glaser.
Henry Petroski
THE EVOLUTION OF USEFUL THINGS
Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. He is the author of more than ten books.
BOOKS BY HENRY PETROSKI
The Book on the Bookshelf
Remaking the World
Invention by Design
Engineers of Dreams
Design Paradigms
The Evolution of Useful Things
The Pencil
Beyond Engineering
To Engineer Is Human
Paperboy
Small Things Considered
ALSO BY HENRY PETROSKI
ENGINEERS OF DREAMS
Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America
Henry Petroski reveals the science and engineering behind America’s great bridges, particularly those constructed during the great bridge-building era starting in the 1870s and continuing through the 1930s. This is the story of the men and women who built the St. Louis, the George Washington, and the Golden Gate bridges, drawing not only on their mastery of numbers but on their gifts for persuasion and self-promotion.
Science/Engineering/0–679-76021–0
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? How did an oversized waterlily inspire the Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes examined in this engaging, wonderfully literate book that looks at our deepest notions of progress and perfection.
Science/Technology/0–679-73416–3
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