David P Billington: 5 books

Long recognised as a classic in the USA, "The Tower and the Bridge" is now at last available in German translation. In his preface to the German edition, Jörg Schlaich writes. "This book is essential reading and a pleasure for the "structural engineering artist", in whose structures the connection...

Power, Speed, and Form is the first accessible account of the engineering behind eight breakthrough innovations that transformed American life from 1876 to 1939--the telephone, electric power, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, radio, the long-span steel bridge, and building with reinforced...

A richly illustrated introduction to the engineering triumphs that made America modern In this age of microchips and deep space probes, it's hard to imagine life before electricity or passenger trains. An astonishing series of engineering innovations paved the way to the twentieth century,...

The massive dams of the American West were designed to serve multiple purposes: improving navigation, irrigating crops, storing water, controlling floods, and generating hydroelectricity. Their construction also put thousands of people to work during the Great Depression. Only later did the dams’...