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  • Published: 2 February 2021
  • ISBN: 9780262044301
  • Imprint: MIT Press
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $75.00
Categories:

From Insight to Innovation

Engineering Ideas That Transformed America in the Twentieth Century




The engineering ideas behind key twentieth-century technical innovations, from great dams and highways to the jet engine, the transistor, the microchip, and the computer.

The engineering ideas behind key twentieth-century technical innovations, from great dams and highways to the jet engine, the transistor, the microchip, and the computer.

Technology is essential to modern life, yet few of us are technology-literate enough to know much about the engineering that underpins it. In this book, David P. Billington, Jr., offers accessible accounts of the key twentieth-century engineering innovations that brought us into the twenty-first century. Billington examines a series of engineering advances—from Hoover Dam and jet engines to the transistor, the microchip, the computer, and the internet—and explains how they came about and how they work.

Each of these innovations tells a unique story. The great dams of the New Deal brought huge rivers under control, and a national highway system interconnected the nation, as did jet air travel. The transistor and the microchip originated in the private sector and found a mass market after early government support. The computer and the internet began as government projects and found a mass market later in the private sector. Billington finds that engineers with unconventional insights could succeed in a bureaucratic age; what mattered were independent vision and a society that welcomed innovation.

This book completes the story of American engineering begun with the earlier volumes The Innovators (by the author's father) and Power, Speed, and Form (by the author and his father).

  • Published: 2 February 2021
  • ISBN: 9780262044301
  • Imprint: MIT Press
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $75.00
Categories:

Praise for From Insight to Innovation

"By introducing the fundamental theories upon which various significant technological achievements are based, Billington Sr. . . . and Billington Jr. . . . shed light on the unseen foundations of invention. . . . A remarkable accomplishment, understandable to general readers... fills a much-needed role in helping to enhance technological literacy and understanding among the general public. . . . Highly recommended."" (Choice)

"This important book makes a significant and unique contribution to the cause of technological literacy. of great value to nonspecialists and general readers without obscuring it with vague language or, worse, jargon."-Henry Petroski, Duke University, author of Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design