Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing

Reviewed by: Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing * Eric Schatzberg (bio) Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing. By Henry Petroski. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996. Pp. viii+242; illustrations, figures, bibliography, index. $24.95. Henry Petroski is in many ways the Stephen Jay Gould of civil engineering. Like Gould, Petroski is a respected academic in a technical field who has built a career as a public intellectual, largely by using history to render technical issues accessible to a broad audience. Like Gould, Petroski is not trained as a historian and relies heavily on secondary sources for his stories. [End Page 152] Yet Petroski has done as much as any currently active historian to make the history of technology relevant to the general public. Petroski also shares with Gould the habit of revisiting material that he has written about previously. Readers of Petroski’s works will find several familiar topics in this book, among them paper clips, pencils, aluminum cans, bridges, and the Crystal Palace. In Invention by Design Petroski approaches these topics with a specific pedagogical purpose: the book was initially intended “to introduce engineering students and others to the nature of invention, design and development” (p. vii). To that end, he presents a series of case studies in the nature of engineering, moving gradually from technical to social factors. Along the way Petroski introduces many basic concepts for understanding technological change, such as invention, development, and systems. In addition, he addresses themes often neglected by historians but of direct interest to engineers, including mathematical modeling of physical systems, failure analysis, and computer-aided design. Given the pedagogical origins of the book, it makes sense to evaluate its utility for the classroom. Although I have not tested the book in my own teaching, it seems promising for use in topical courses in the history of technology or technology and society, especially courses aimed at engineering students. Beginning American undergraduates should find Petroski’s case studies accessible and engaging. The early chapters succeed admirably in revealing the complex technical history and sophisticated design processes embodied in even the most mundane modern artifacts. Case studies of the fax machine and the Boeing 777 make up the middle of the book, clearly illustrating how modern technologies operate within functionally integrated systems. The final chapters, however, are somewhat less successful. These examine social and political dimensions of technological systems, with discussions of water supply and sewers, bridges, and skyscrapers. Overall, Petroski succeeds better at conveying technical than social complexity. Like most civil engineers today, Petroski is sensitive to environmental issues, but he treats environmentalism primarily as a source of additional technical criteria that engineers must include in the design process. Likewise, his examination of the politics of public works and social aspects of urban systems lacks sophistication. Nevertheless, Petroski provides enough engaging examples of social influence to permit further elaboration in the classroom. As is to be expected of any general work aimed at a broad audience, specialists will no doubt have their quibbles with specific aspects of the case studies. But overall the case studies are well researched, and Petroski makes no claims to definitive historical scholarship. Even for classroom use, however, I would like a better critical apparatus. Instead of notes, the book has a short bibliography for each chapter. These bibliographies seem more like lists of works consulted than aids to further research. For example, the bibliography for the chapter on water and society omits Nelson Blake’s 1956 [End Page 153] classic Water for the Cities (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press), Donald Reid’s Dexter Prize-winning Paris Sewers and Sewermen (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), and Christopher Hamlin’s important Science of Impurity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). I do have one conceptual problem with the book: Petroski’s tendency to equate technology and engineering. He does not define engineering as the professional practice of engineers, but rather as “the art of rearranging the materials and forces of nature,” which is a “fundamental human process that has been practiced since the earliest days of civilization” (pp. 1, 2). By defining engineering in this way, Petroski implicitly gives...