Evolution of Useful Things

The Evolution of Useful Things

Henry Petroski, Alfred A Knopf, 1992. ISBN 0-679-41226-3

Petroski presents a popularly-written account of the evolution of many every-day artifacts, ranging from paper clips to zippers. Petroski counters the familiar maxim "form follows function" with his own, which could be summed up as "form follows failure".

Petroski begins his study with the fork. He examines its origins and introduction into Western society and shows how it evolved. He uses the variety of fork designs to illustrate his thesis: "What form does follow is the real and perceived failure of things as they are used to do what they are supposed to do." (p. 20)

Petroski goes on to broaden and expound on his thesis. He defines 'failure' in this sense not as a general failure to perform, but as a failure to perform as well as can be imagined. By this standard, almost every artifact has some failure and thus an evolutionary path (or paths). Indeed, the changing idea of what constitutes 'perfection' ensures that no artifact will retain its form indefinitely. Petroski proposes this as a general rule to be supported by case studies.

Petroski then examines the role of the inventor. He shows that one characteristic of an inventor is a critical view of the artifacts around him. Petroski disputes the dictum that 'necessity is the mother of invention,' rather, desire is the mother of invention -- desire for improved artifacts. Thus the process of technological evolution is never-ending.

Petroski continues with an in-depth case study of the paper clip. He presents the myriad number of designs as evidence that inventors each follow their own path by coming up with solutions for particular failures in existing artifacts. He broadens his definition of 'failure' to include aesthetics by admitting that even though the most popular design (the "Gem") has a number of failures that inventors have corrected, it remains popular.

Petroski goes on to present a number of smaller case studies -- masking tape, Post-It notes, the stapler, the safety pin, etc. Petroski returns to the topic of silverware (one he seems to be fascinated with) to examine the variety of silver patterns. He suggests that this is explained by a school of thought that might be termed "form eschews function."

Petroski next introduces the topic of industrial design. He believes that industrial designers are limited by the need to keep some element of familiarity in their designs -- i.e., new designs cannot depart too markedly from previous designs if they are to be accepted by the public. Petroski goes on to present more case studies (the book is awash with them) before going on to restate his thesis.

While Petroski is a good story-teller, he ultimately fails to really make his point. Indeed, it's a little hard to tell at times what point he is trying to make. Surely we do not need 250 pages to tell us that inventors design different kinds of things to solve problems in existing designs.