Power, Speed, and Form: Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century

The lofty wingspan of its title might suggest a lavishly-illustrated, 10,000-page exposition on planes, trains, automobiles and skyscrapers; it's to this book's credit that it isn't. Written by an engineering professor and his son, a history Ph.D., this book is tightly focused on eight groundbreaking engineering innovations that took place between 1876 and 1939 (picking up where Billington's The Innovators left off), considering the function and legacy of ""the electric light and power network, the telephone, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, large steel bridges, and reinforced concrete."" The methodical prose betrays an engineer's touch, and the focus is squarely on the technical, including careful illustrations and sidebars studded with charts and mathematical formulas. The Billingtons use painstaking detail in discussion of the each 20th-century invention; it seems mundane (and for engineers or technical whizzes, completely redundant), but for the lay-person seeking a basic handle on the major inventions of the time, there's a lot to like here, especially in the unadorned, refreshingly simple presentation of technical information. It's that basic solidity-substance rather than style--that makes this book a fine reference. 77 halftones, 75 line illus.