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

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.

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 ofSuccess 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

From the Inside Flap

"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 ofSuccess 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

Reviews

The lofty wingspan of its title might suggest a lavishly-illustrated, 10,000-page exposition on planes, trains, automobiles and skyscrapers; it's to this book's credit that it isn't. Written by an engineering professor and his son, a history Ph.D., this book is tightly focused on eight groundbreaking engineering innovations that took place between 1876 and 1939 (picking up where Billington's The Innovators left off), considering the function and legacy of "the electric light and power network, the telephone, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, large steel bridges, and reinforced concrete." The methodical prose betrays an engineer's touch, and the focus is squarely on the technical, including careful illustrations and sidebars studded with charts and mathematical formulas. The Billingtons use painstaking detail in discussion of the each 20th-century invention; it seems mundane (and for engineers or technical whizzes, completely redundant), but for the lay-person seeking a basic handle on the major inventions of the time, there's a lot to like here, especially in the unadorned, refreshingly simple presentation of technical information. It's that basic solidity-substance rather than style--that makes this book a fine reference. 77 halftones, 75 line illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Billingtons' book describes the innovations from 1876 to 1939 that launched the leading technologies three-quarters of a century ago. They are the electric light and power network, the telephone, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, the radio, large steel bridges, and reinforced concrete. The book is a sequel to The Innovators (1996), which covered American engineering from 1776 to 1883; the two books together explain the principal engineering ideas that helped transform the U.S. from an agrarian society in the eighteenth century to the industrial civilization it became in the twentieth century. There are explanations of Thomas Edison's inventions in the field of electric power, Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone, Henry Ford's gasoline--powered Model T, the Wright brothers' airplane, and such milestones as the radio, bridges, and aerodynamics (which resulted in faster cars and planes). The book, with 77 halftones and 75 line illustrations, gives a thorough history of engineering achievements. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

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