Volume 52, Number 10 · June 9, 2005
How Things Work
By Witold Rybczynski
Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design
by Henry Petroski
Vintage, 288 pp., $14.00 (paper)
Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering
by Henry Petroski
Knopf, 288 pp., $25.00
'In London, Dissent Roils Design Museum,' reported The New York Times a few months ago—a piece of light-hearted news amid the general turmoil. The roiling dissenter turned out to be James Dyson, known to many Americans as the inventor of a newfangled vacuum cleaner. Dyson had resigned as chairman of the board of the Design Museum, objecting to the direction that the museum was taking. Recent exhibits had been devoted to fashion magazine typography, expensive women's shoes, and the work of a 1950s British florist, Constance Spry. 'Not to be rude about flower arranging, but that is not what the museum was set up to do,' Dyson said. He emphasized that the goal of the Design Museum, which was founded by the home furnishings magnate Sir Terence Conran in 1989, was to 'give a lead to the public on the difference between design as styling and design as intelligent problem-solving.'
Review, 3672 words
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