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? |
Contents
How the Fork Got Its Tines | 3 |
Form Follows Failure | 22 |
Inventors as Critics | 34 |
From Pins to Paper Clips | 51 |
Little Things Can Mean a Lot | 78 |
Stick Before Zip | 92 |
Tools Make Tools | 114 |
Patterns of Proliferation | 130 |
The Power of Precedent | 171 |
Closure Before Opening | 185 |
Big Bucks from Small Change | 209 |
When Good Is Better Than Best | 220 |
Always Room for Improvement | 237 |
Notes | 253 |
Bibliography | 265 |
List of Illustrations | 275 |
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Common terms and phrases
advantages aesthetic aluminum American appears Basalla bathroom become beverage blade Bostitch bottle Brosnan buttons catalogue clamshell Company consumer course desk developed device dinner fork early easily eating edge Emily Post engineering evolution of artifacts evolved example existing failure fashion fingers fish form follows FORM FOLLOWS FAILURE form follows function function Gideon Sundback hammer hand handles Hook and Eye Hookless Fastener human-factors engineer ibid idea illustration improvement industrial design invention inventors Jacob Rabinow Johan Vaaler Judson knife and fork knives Konaclip less Loewy look machine manufacturers McDLT McDonald's meat ment metal mouth objects packaging paper clip pastry forks pattern pieces pins plastic prior art pull Rabinow removed screw served shape shortcomings silver silverplate silverware single specialized spoon steel style Sundback tape things tines tion U.S. Patent users utensils Vaaler's Whitcomb Judson wire York zipper