The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance
by Henry Petroski
List Price:
Our Price: $7.81
You Save: $14.19 (64%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.12 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Henry PetroskiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-11-10
ISBN: 0679734155
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Knopf
Summary of The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance
Henry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually and charmingly about its development over the centuries and around the world, and shows what the pencil can teach us about engineering and technology today.Like most other human artifacts, the common pencil, made and sold today by the millions, has a long and complex history. Henry Petroski, who combines a talent for fine writing with a deep knowledge of engineering and technological history, examines the story of the pencil, considering it not only as a thing in itself, but also as an exemplar of all things that are designed and manufactured.
Petroski ranges widely in time, discussing the writing technologies of antiquity. But his story really begins in the early modern period, when, in 1565, a Swiss naturalist first described the properties of the mineral that became known as graphite. Petroski traces the evolution of the pencil through the Industrial Revolution, when machine manufacture replaced earlier handwork. Along the way, he looks at some of pencil making's great innovators--including Henry David Thoreau, the famed writer, who worked in his father's pencil factory, inventing techniques for grinding graphite and experimenting with blends of lead, clay, and other ingredients to yield pencils of varying hardness and darkness. Petroski closes with a look at how pencils are made today--a still-imperfect technology that may yet evolve with new advances in materials and design. --Gregory McNamee
Engineering Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Engineering Books
Latitude Hooks and Azimuth Rings: How to Build and Use 18 Traditional Navigational Instrumentsby Dennis Fisher
International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; Published: 1994-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.21
Price in other shops:
Troubleshooting Marine Dieselsby Peter Compton
International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; Published: 1997-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Communication Systemsby A. Bruce Carlson, Paul Crilly, Janet Rutledge
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2001-06-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.99
Voice and Data Communications Handbook (Mcgraw-Hill Series on Computer Communications)by Regis J. Bates, Donald W. Gregory, Bud Bates
Mcgraw-Hill (Tx); Published: 1996-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Engineering Circuit Analysisby William Hayt, Jack Kemmerly, Steven Durbin
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2007-02-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $109.95
Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach w/ Student Resources DVDby Yunus A. Cengel, Michael A. Boles
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2005-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $110.99
Alien Agendaby Jim Marrs
HarperTorch; Published: 1998-07-08; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Yard: Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Worksby Michael S. Sanders
HarperCollins; Published: 1999-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
Laboratory Manual for Microelectronic Circuitsby Smith Sedra, Adel S. Sedra
Oxford University Press; Published: 1991-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $168.50
Longitudeby Dava Sobel
Harpercollins Audio; Published: 1996-12-02; Hardcover; Book
Similar Books and other products
Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millenniumby Paul Levinson
Routledge; Published: 2001-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.75
Price in other shops:
One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screwby Witold Rybczynski
Scribner; Published: 2001-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.83
Price in other shops:
Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Designby Henry Petroski
Vintage; Published: 2004-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.02
Price in other shops:
Success through Failure: The Paradox of Designby Henry Petroski
Princeton University Press; Published: 2008-02-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
The Toothpick: Technology and Culture (Vintage)by Henry Petroski
Vintage; Published: 2008-11-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
The Book on the Bookshelfby Henry Petroski
Vintage; Published: 2000-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
Invention by Design; How Engineers Get from Thought to Thingby Henry Petroski
Harvard University Press; Published: 1996-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineeringby Henry Petroski
Vintage; Published: 1998-12-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Designby Henry Petroski
Vintage; Published: 1992-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.94
Price in other shops:
The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They areby Henry Petroski
Vintage; Published: 1994-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops: