Ebook: The evolution of useful things: how everyday artifacts - from forks and pins to paper clips and zippers - came to be as they are

???How did the table fork acquire a fourth tine?? What advantage does the Phillips-head screw have over its single-grooved predecessor? Why does the paper clip look the way it does? What makes Scotch tape Scotch????In this delightful book Henry, Petroski takes a microscopic look at artifacts that most of us count on but rarely contemplate, including such icons of the everyday as pins, Post-its, and fast-food "clamshell" containers.? At the same time, he offers a convincing new theory of technological innovation as a response to the perceived failures of existing products?suggesting that irritation, and not necessity, is the mother of invention. From the Trade Paperback edition.