We often hear about better living through science. Yet progress in improving our lives most often comes from engineers rather than scientists. Engineers make the things that improve the human condition. Scientists follow, explaining how and why the things engineers make work, and taking the credit. We speak of rocket science, when it is really rocket engineering.
“The Things We Make: The Unknown History of Invention from Cathedrals to Soda Cans,” by Bill Hammack explores engineering and the engineering method. It shows how invention really works.
Hammack starts by showing why you don’t need to know why something works in order to build it. He opens with a chapter on constructing medieval cathedrals, complex structures that collapse when built badly. He shows how the master mason used rules of thumb, which were developed empirically, to guide construction. This, Hammack reveals, is the engineering method: a process of methodical and actionable problem solving. As Hammack shows, the engineer often doesn’t know why these rules work, just that they do and they deliver the results desired.
The rest of the book is used to illustrate the engineering method in action. He uses virtually every form of technology to drive home his points. He takes readers on trips exploring the development of photography, automobiles, machinery, ceramics, rocketry, lighting, and more.
Each chapter follows the path that led us to today’s final products. In virtually every case, “why” something worked trailed after the solution was worked out. He also shows why antipathy so often exists between scientists and engineers. To scientists, engineers “cheat” by doing things they do not understand. One should understand things first. For engineers, the solution is the goal; understanding why it works is secondary.
Hammack also blows apart the myth of the lone inventor in this book. He shows how the lightbulb moments in history are always the product of evolutionary development. This includes the development of the lightbulb. In one chapter, he shows how Thomas Edison, Hiram Maxim, and others, contributed in significant ways to produce the modern lightbulb. He hammers this concept home in another chapter on microwave ovens. It underscores the points Hammack makes throughout, while undermining the creation myth of the microwave. (The actual story is more interesting.)
“The Things We Make” is a captivating read, as entertaining as informative. It will make readers look at engineering with new respect.
