The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are
4 journalers for this copy...
Intersting and informative. The evolution of things used in everyday life from forks, pins, paperclips and zippers to Post-it notes and "clamshell" food containers.
This book is a controlled release to the Biography of Things book box, in memory of BC'er
Mary Zee who founded this book box.
Received from Zippy for the book box.
Journal Entry 4 by 
6of8
at -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, Maryland USA on Friday, January 20, 2017
6of8 at -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, Maryland USA on Friday, January 20, 2017
Released 7 yrs ago (1/20/2017 UTC) at -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, Maryland USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
This book is in the Biography of Things BookBox and is off to travel the country.
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Any future reader or recipient of this book is encouraged to leave a journal entry here on the BookCrossing site to let prior readers know the fate of the book. You can make an anonymous entry without joining the BookCrossing movement, but if you are interested in joining, it is a free and spam-free community where your contact information is not shared with others. Best of all, members receive private messages via e-mail from books like this one when those books are journaled, allowing for long-term relationships between books and readers.
Taking from the Biographies of Things bookbox. Thanks for sharing!
Though some parts were more interesting than others (depending on the item being discussed, and my personal interests), in general this was a great book which made me think about how the common things we use came to be as they now are. What powers the evolution of items from the first idea, through several modifications, to the present-day product? Is this evolution based more on function or form? The author mostly supports the idea that inventions come about due to a failure of the previous incarnation in terms of function. But he also gives examples of when aesthetics (form) seem to take precedence. I’ll never use an everyday object again without wondering about how it came to be.
Some of the most interesting topics were paper clips (with which he begins the book), silverware/eating utensils, and – a more recent invention – plastic garbage bags. The book was published in 1992 and is thus a bit dated, but even back then there were problems with the form and function of plastic bags, pre-dating today’s current issue with the plastic itself.
Some of the most interesting topics were paper clips (with which he begins the book), silverware/eating utensils, and – a more recent invention – plastic garbage bags. The book was published in 1992 and is thus a bit dated, but even back then there were problems with the form and function of plastic bags, pre-dating today’s current issue with the plastic itself.
On its way to innae via wishlist-tag. Thanks for your patience!
Yay for the wishlist game! Thank you - i have had this on my wishlist for a long time :-)
