"Delightful...A keen observer of the made world and how people live in it Small Things Considered provides all sorts of penetrating and broadly interesting insights into... the process of design."
--Scientific American
"He peers closely at some of our most common household objects and explains how they work---or don’t...Whether he’s tracing the evolution of the 0ral-B toothbrush or explaining why the fastest tollbooth is always the one on the far right, Petroski clearly knows the designs of our times."
--Michael Dirda, INC. Magazine
Why has the durable paper shopping bag been largely replaced by its flimsy plastic counterpart? What circuitous chain of improvements led to such innovations as the automobile cup holder and the swiveling vegetable peeler? With the same relentless curiosity and lucid, witty prose he brought to his earlier books, Henry Petroski looks at some of our most familiar objects and reveals that they are, in fact, works in progress. For there can never be an end to the quest for the perfect design.
To illustrate his thesis, Petroski tells the story of the paper drinking cup, which owes its popularity to the discovery that water glasses could carry germs. He pays tribute to the little plastic tripod that keeps pizza from sticking to the box and analyzes the numerical layouts of telephones and handheld calculators. Small Things Considered is Petroski at his most trenchant and provocative, casting his eye not only on everyday artifacts but on their users as well.
ONE: The Nature of Design
TWO: Looking at Design
THREE: Design, Design Everywhere
FOUR: Illuminating Design
FIVE: Driven by Design
SIX: Designina Box
SEVEN: Labyrinthine Design
EIGHT: Design out of a Paper Bag
NINE: Domestic Design
TEN: Folk Design
ELEVEN: Kitchen-Sink Design
TWELVE: Off-the-Shelf Design
THIRTEEN: Familiar Design
FOURTEEN: Design by the Numbers
FIFTEEN: Selective Design
SIXTEEN: ABrushwith Design
SEVENTEEN: Design Hits the Wall
EIGHTEEN: Design Rising
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
INDEX
