AN ENGINEER’S ALPHABET GleaningsfromtheSofterSideofaProfession Written by America’s most famous engineering storyteller and educator,thisabecedarianisoneengineer’sselectionofthoughts, quotations, anecdotes, facts, trivia, and arcana relating to the practice, history, culture, and traditions of his profession. The entries reflect decades of reading, writing, talking, and thinking aboutengineersandengineering,andrangefrombriefessaysto lists of great engineering achievements. This work is organized alphabeticallyandmorelikeadictionarythananencyclopedia. Itisnotintendedtobereadfromfirstpagetolast,butratherto bedippedintohereandthereasthemoodstrikesthereader.In time, it is hoped, this book should become the source to which readers go first when they encounter a vague or obscure refer- encetothesoftersideofengineering. Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. He has written broadly on the topics of design, success and fail- ure, and the history of engineering and technology. His fifteen booksonthesesubjectsincludeToEngineerIsHuman,ThePen- cil,TheEvolutionofUsefulThings,SuccessthroughFailure,and TheEssentialEngineer.Inadditiontohisbooks,whichhavebeen translatedintomorethanadozenlanguages,Petroskihaswritten numerousgeneral-interestarticlesforpublicationsincludingthe NewYorkTimes,WashingtonPost,LosAngelesTimes,andWall StreetJournal,andhewritesregularcolumnsforbothAmerican ScientistandASEEPrism.PetroskiisaDistinguishedMemberof theAmericanSocietyofCivilEngineersandisaFellowofboth theAmericanSocietyofMechanicalEngineersandtheInstitu- tion of Engineers of Ireland. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philo- sophicalSociety,andtheU.S.NationalAcademyofEngineering. OtherBooksbytheAuthor To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design BeyondEngineering:EssaysandOtherAttemptstoFigure withoutEquations ThePencil:AHistoryofDesignandCircumstance TheEvolutionofUsefulThings Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment inEngineering EngineersofDreams:GreatBridgeBuildersandtheSpan- ningofAmerica InventionbyDesign:HowEngineersGetfromThoughtto Thing RemakingtheWorld:AdventuresinEngineering TheBookontheBookshelf Paperboy:ConfessionsofaFutureEngineer SmallThingsConsidered:WhyThereIsNoPerfectDesign PushingtheLimits:NewAdventuresinEngineering SuccessthroughFailure:TheParadoxofDesign TheToothpick:TechnologyandCulture TheEssentialEngineer:WhyScienceAloneWillNotSolve OurGlobalProblems ToForgiveDesign:UnderstandingFailure AN ENGINEER’S ALPHABET Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession Henry Petroski DukeUniversity CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown, Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,Tokyo,MexicoCity CambridgeUniversityPress 32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,NY10013-2473,USA www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107015067 (cid:2)c HenryPetroski2011 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2011 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationdata Petroski,Henry. Anengineer’salphabet:gleaningsfromthesoftersideofaprofession/ HenryPetroski. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-1-107-01506-7(hardback) 1. Engineering–Philosophy–Miscellanea. 2. Technology–Philosophy– Miscellanea. I.Title. T14.P473 2011 601–dc23 2011020065 ISBN978-1-107-01506-7Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. ToStephenandLaura Preface This abecedarian is one engineer’s collection of thoughts, quotations,anecdotes,facts,trivia,arcana,andmiscellanea relating to the practice, history, culture, and traditions of hisprofession.Theentries,whichrepresentthedistillation ofdecadesofreading,writing,talking,andthinkingabout engineersandengineering,rangefrombriefessaysoncon- ceptsandpracticesthatarecentraltotheprofessiontolists ofitsgreatachievements.Thisbookisatthesametimean anthology,acommonplacebook,andareferencevolume. My approach in composing the entries has generally been to convey as much information in as little space as possible,tocreatemoreofadictionary-likethananency- clopedia-likesenseofthetopicunderdiscussion.Innocase isanentrymeanttobedefinitiveorexhaustive,andsoref- erences to further information are provided freely. How- ever, I have included no references to the World Wide Web,notonlybecausewebsitescancome,go,andchange sounpredictably,butalsobecauseitcanbeeasiertoquery areliablesearchenginethantotypeincorrectlyalongweb address. Thisvolumeisnotintendedtobereadfromfirstpageto last,butratherismeanttobedippedintohereandthereas themoodstrikesthereader,withthealphabeticalarrange- mentpromotingserendipity.Intime,itishoped,thisbook will become the source to which readers come first when they encounter a vague or obscure reference to some- thing related to the softer side of engineering. To mini- mize the need to follow cross-references, some especially relevantinformationisparaphrased,ratherthanrepeated verbatim, in separate entries. An index of proper names is included to aid the reader seeking to locate references vii viii Preface toindividualengineersandtospecificengineeringinstitu- tions,organizations,projects,orlandmarks. Many of the entries in this volume may seem woe- fullyincomplete,evenbydictionarystandards;Iencourage readerstosendmeadditionalinformationthatcouldhelp flesh out a topic in a possible future edition. Suggestions for additional entries are likewise welcome. I also would appreciate hearing about any inaccuracies that may have creptinandpersistedthroughoutthewritingandproduc- tionprocess.IcanbereachedthroughtheDepartmentof Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Box 90287, Durham, NC 27708, or via e-mail at petroski @duke.edu. Needless to say, any errors that are here are myresponsibilityalone. Someoftheentriesinthiscompendiumwerepublished first in my “Refractions” column, which appears in each issueofASEEPrism,themagazineoftheAmericanSoci- ety for Engineering Education. A few other entries first sawthelightofdayasshortessaysintheWallStreetJour- nal and other publications. But the overwhelming major- ity of the material contained herein is original with this volume. I am grateful to Peter Gordon and his colleagues at Cambridge University Press who embraced this project withenthusiasm.IamindebtedtoMichaelFisher,anearly reader,forhispersistentencouragement andforhisgood senseaboutwhattoleaveoutofabooklikethis.And,as always, I am grateful to my wife, Catherine, for her sym- patheticreadingofthemanuscriptinitsearliestformand forhercriticalreadingofitinitslatest.Havinglivedasthe spouseofanengineerforforty-fiveyears(andasadaugh- terandamotherofengineers),shehasdeveloped akeen senseofthebeastanditsprofessionalhabits. HenryPetroski Arrowsic,Maine Summer2011