Henry Petroski
Henry Petroski
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Full Name and Common Aliases
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Henry J. Petroski is a renowned American engineer, historian of technology, and author.
Birth and Death Dates
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Born on May 6, 1942, Henry Petroski is still active in his professional life.
Nationality and Profession(s)
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Petroski is an American citizen and has worked as both a practicing engineer and professor. He has held positions in engineering, academia, and government agencies throughout his career.
Early Life and Background
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Henry Petroski was born in New York City to parents of Croatian descent. His family's experiences during the Great Depression influenced his early life, and he developed an interest in engineering from a young age. Petroski earned his Bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Cornell University in 1965 and later completed his Master's (1968) and Ph.D. (1971) at Cornell University, all while studying the intersection of technology and society.
Major Accomplishments
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Petroski is recognized for his contributions to understanding the history of engineering and technology. Some notable achievements include:
Serving as a professor of civil engineering at Duke University from 1971 until his retirement in 2016, where he founded and directed the Program in Design.
Conducting extensive research on the design process and its evolution over time.
Writing numerous books on technology and engineering history that have received critical acclaim.Notable Works or Actions
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Some of Petroski's notable works include:
"To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design" (1985), which explores the importance of failure in design.
"The Pencil: A History" (2000), a comprehensive history of the pencil and its impact on society.
"Small Things Matter: People, Beasts and Print" (2009), examining the intricate relationships between humans, animals, and printmaking.
Impact and Legacy
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Henry Petroski's work has significantly influenced how we understand technology and design. His emphasis on the importance of failure in successful design processes has been particularly influential, encouraging designers to learn from past mistakes and incorporate them into their designs.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
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Petroski is widely quoted for his insights into engineering history and design principles. His ability to make complex topics accessible through engaging narratives has made him a respected voice in both academic and public spheres. He continues to inspire future generations of engineers, designers, and historians with his work.
Quotes by Henry Petroski
Henry Petroski's insights on:
Failure is central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail.
Yet the bookshelf is also conspicuous in its absence. When we enter a living room without books or bookshelves, we wonder if the people in the house do nothing but watch television.
No one wants to learn by mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art. Contrary to their popular characterization as intellectual conservatives, engineers are really among the avant-garde.
That decision falls to scientists, engineers, and managers – with at least the tacit approval of company officers and boards of directors. All complex technology is inseparably coupled to an equally complex team of people and systems of people who should interact with one another as smoothly and with as clear a purpose as a set of well-meshed gears.
This cartoon scientist wants to look, act, and think like Einstein: casually and comfortably dressed, if not somewhat unkempt and disheveled; unconventional, but in a curiously impish and self-conscious way; irreverent and individualistic, except when it comes to dressing in a nonuniform uniform and championing his specialty.
Failure analysis is as easy as Monday-morning quarterbacking’ design is more akin to coaching. However, the design engineer must do better than any coach, for he is expected to win every game he plays. That is a tough assignment when one mistake can often mean a loss. And when defeat occurs, all one can hope is to analyze the game films and learn from the mistakes so that they are less likely to be repeated the next time out.
Some positive persisting fops we know, Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so; But you, with pleasure own your errors past, And make each day a critic on the last. – Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism.
It is the process of design, in which diverse parts of the “given-world” of the scientist and the “made-world” of the engineer are reformed and assembled into something the likes of which Nature had not dreamed, that divorces engineering from science and marries it to art.
All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth – it requires an ensemble of correct assumptions and valid calculations.
There’s so much written about the Titanic, and it’s hard to separate what’s fact and what’s fiction. My understanding is that the way the Titanic was designed, the emphasis was placed on surviving a head-on collision.