Power, Speed, and Form: Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century - Hardcover

David P. Billington; David P. Billington Jr.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691102929 ISBN 13: 9780691102924

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Power, Speed, and Form is the first accessible account of the engineering behind eight breakthrough innovations that transformed American life from 1876 to 1939--the telephone, electric power, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, radio, the long-span steel bridge, and building with reinforced concrete. Beginning with Thomas Edison's system to generate and distribute electric power, the authors explain the Bell telephone, the oil refining processes of William Burton and Eugene Houdry, Henry Ford's Model T car and the response by General Motors, the Wright brothers' airplane, radio innovations from Marconi to Armstrong, Othmar Ammann's George Washington Bridge, the reinforced concrete structures of John Eastwood and Anton Tedesko, and in the 1930s, the Chrysler Airflow car and the Douglas DC-3 airplane.

These innovations used simple numerical ideas, which the Billingtons integrate with short narrative accounts of each breakthrough--a unique and effective way to introduce engineering and how engineers think. The book shows how the best engineering exemplifies efficiency, economy and, where possible, elegance. With Power, Speed, and Form, educators, first-year engineering students, liberal arts students, and general readers now have, for the first time in one volume, an accessible and readable history of engineering achievements that were vital to America's development and that are still the foundations of modern life.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"This important book makes a significant and unique contribution to the cause of technological literacy. It will be of great value to nonspecialists and general readers precisely because of its introduction of simple equations and formulas: these sharpen and focus the technical argument without obscuring it with vague language or, worse, jargon."--Henry Petroski, Duke University, author of Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design

"This book fills an important need for a work that straddles the literacy-numeracy divide. It is a useful historical synthesis of the technical foundations of the American experience in the twentieth century."--Robert Friedel, University of Maryland, author of Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty

About the Author

David P. Billington is Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor of Engineering at Princeton University. His books include The Innovators; Robert Maillart: Designer, Builder, Artist; and The Tower and the Bridge (Princeton). David P. Billington Jr. holds a Ph.D. in modern history from the University of Texas and is an independent scholar.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0691102929
• ISBN 13: 9780691102924
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 296