To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure

427 Pages·2012·1.422 MB·English

by  Henry Petroski

TO FORGIVE DESIGN

To Forgive Design
UNDERSTANDING FAILURE
Henry Petroski
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
cambridge, massachusetts
london, england 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Henry Petroski
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Petroski, Henry.
To forgive design : understanding failure / Henry
Petroski.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-06584-0 (alk. paper)
1. System failures (Engineering) I. Title.
TA169.5.P48 2012
620′.00452—dc23 2011044194
To Catherine, this bookend for an anniversary

CONTENTS
Preface ix
1. By Way of Concrete Examples 1
2. Things Happen 26
3. Designed to Fail 48
4. Mechanics of Failure 81
5. A Repeating Problem 107
6. The Old and the New 128
7. Searching for a Cause 150
8. The Obligation of an Engineer 175
9. Before, during, and after the Fall 199
10. Legal Matters 223
11. Back- Seat Designers 241
12. Houston, You Have a Problem 270
13. Without a Leg to Stand On 302
14. History and Failure 327
Notes 363
Illustrations 395
Index 397