Henry Petroski Lecture

Submitted by Susan Miller on Sun, 01/17/2010 - 12:54.
03/24/2010 - 17:30
03/24/2010 - 18:30
Etc/GMT-5

Henry Petroski, PhD. speaks on Engineering + Civilization

He is apparently widely know for his indepth study of the lowly toothpick. There's an excerpt online, but since it says this at the bottom of the page:

"Excerpted from The Toothpick by Henry Petroski Copyright © 2007 by Henry Petroski. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher."

I have made that a link... (heh, heh... copyrights are so funny) enjoy.

The event is free, but you have to call for tickets - see severance box office phone below.

Location

Severance Hall
Euclid Avenue & East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106
United States
Phone: 216.231.1111
See map: Google Maps
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The Role of Failure in Design

Submitted by DifferentPointOfView on Sun, 01/17/2010 - 20:05.

Henry Petroski is also the author of To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design, which should be accessible to nearly everyone. One of the failures discussed in his book is the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. YouTube has multiple videos of the bridge's destruction. Here is some newsreel footage--complete with melodramatic music and commentary--showing the bridge's collapse.