Originally published: Harmondsworth : Penguin Books, 1978 Includes bibliographical references and index
Contents:
The structure in our lives or how to communicate with engineers part I. The difficult birth of the science of elasticity. why structures carry loads or the springiness of solids ; The invention of stress and strain or Baron Cauchy and the decipherment of Young's modulus ; Designing for safety or can you really trust strength calculations? ; Strain energy and modern fracture mechanics with a digression on bows, catapults and kangaroos part II. Tension structures. Tension structures and pressure vessels with some remarks on boilers, bats and Chinese junks ; Joints, fastenings and people also about creep and chariot wheels ; Soft materials and living structures or how to design a worm part III. Compression and bending structures. Walls, arches and dams or cloud-capp'd towers and the stability of masonry ; Something about bridges or Saint Bénexèt and Saint Isambard ; The advantage of being a beam with observations on roofs, trusses and masts ; The mysteries of shear and torsion or Polaris and the bias-cut nightie ; The various ways of failing in compression or sandwiches, skulls and Dr. Euler part IV. And the consequence was ... the philosophy of design or the shape, the weight and the cost ; A chapter of accidents a study in sin, error and metal fatigue ; Efficiency and aesthetics or the world we have to live in Appendix 1. Handbooks and formulae Appendix 2. Beam theory Appendix 3. Torsion Appendix 4. The efficiency of columns and panels under compression loads
