Invention By Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing News & Views Book Review

Invention By Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing, by Henry Petroski. Harvard University Press 1997. ISBN: 0-674-46367-6, 242 pages, $12.95 (paperback) by Alan Muirhead Alan creates computer software validation documentation, online help, and user guides for AstraZeneca, Wayne, PA. Originally published in News & Views November 1999 issue. Copyright 1999 STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter. For permission to reprint this article, contact the Managing Editor.

As technical writers, we are told that we must understand our audience, who are often taken to be the end users of the equipment or software we are documenting. The audience, however, also includes the designers, engineers, and developers who create the products we write about. What goes on inside the heads of these "subject matter experts" with whom we interact every day? In Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing, Henry Petroski discusses what engineers (and by extension, all technical developers) have to go through in order to turn their ideas into viable products. Petroski, a professor of both civil engineering and history at Duke University, makes it clear that new concepts don't turn into successful products without many false starts and carefully-analyzed iterations: "a healthy sense of criticism is what gives the best inventors, designers, and engineers their edge." The book is presented as a series of case studies, each chosen to illustrate specific factors or traits that characterize the successful engineer and project. The first example is the simple paper clip (not to be confused with Clippy, the artifact Cheryl Lockett Zubak discussed in connection with embedded help!). Petroski shows that the paper clip isn't really so simple after all; it required knowledge of material properties (the metal must both bend and be springy), a sense of elegance in design, and (most importantly) the ability to create a machine to manufacture the clips cheaply before the so-called Gem design succeeded. Even so, engineers are never satisfied, and several hundred patents have been issued in the last century for designs that profess to offer some advantage over the Gem. By discussing this case in some detail, Petroski is able to introduce important concepts about science, the marketplace, and the competition among engineers to develop the winning (i.e., commercially successful) product. Another introductory example is the zipper. The point here is to show how a concept must be refined over time, and that it takes both patience and financial resources to carry through the effort. The original patent for a "shoe-fastening device" was issued in 1893, and the Automatic Hook and Eye Company continued to work on the concept through World War I. Nearly twenty-five years after that first patent, they came up with a reliable design and achieved their first commercial success when Goodrich introduced rubber galoshes with the fastener. Interestingly, it was Goodrich that came up with the name, when they advertised that the galoshes zipped on and off easily. The story of the aluminum beverage can emphasizes the importance of failure analysis, both in coming up with a shape that wouldn't collapse during shipping (the concave bottom and tapered top) and in solving the environmental problems associated with the cans. Remember the tab-tops on the original cans? As Petroski reminds us, "what began as a technological godsend for drinkers without church keys ended up as a devil of a problem." The engineering that led to today's pop-top depends on a controlled failure in the aluminum. It also required an understanding of the larger societal and ecological issues that necessitated the effort. Other case studies expand to include still broader issues. The evolution of the fax machine depended on the development of international standards and a supporting telecommunications infrastructure; the launch of the Boeing 777 required interactions of many teams, now linked via computer-aided design (a technology in its own right). Finally, engineering projects such as hydroelectric plants and bridges require not only sound engineering, but also engineers who can communicate with politicians and the public. Petroski writes in a very clear, lucid style, injecting a sense of discovery and some humor into the stories he tells. Technical writers will benefit both from learning what he has to say and seeing how he says it.

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Last updated: November 22, 1999 (dls)