A celebration culture and technology, as seen through the history of the humble yet ubiquitous toothpick, from the best-selling author of The Pencil.
From ancient Rome, where emperor Nero made his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth, to nineteenth-century Boston, where Charles Forster, the father of the American wooden toothpick industry, ensured toothpicks appeared in every restaurant, the toothpick has been an omnipresent, yet often overlooked part of our daily lives. Here, with an engineer's eye for detail and a poet's flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of this most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today's surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick's unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.
| ISBN: | 9780307279439 |
| Publication date: | 4th November 2008 |
| Author: | Henry Petroski |
| Publisher: | Vintage Books an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 443 pages |
| Genres: |
Product design Technical design Inventions and inventors Design, Industrial and commercial arts, illustration |
A celebration culture and technology, as seen through the history of the humble yet ubiquitous toothpick, from the best-selling author of The Pencil.
From ancient Rome, where emperor Nero made his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth, to nineteenth-century Boston, where Charles Forster, the father of the American wooden toothpick industry, ensured toothpicks appeared in every restaurant, the toothpick has been an omnipresent, yet often overlooked part of our daily lives. Here, with an engineer's eye for detail and a poet's flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of this most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today's surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick's unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.
The Toothpick features in the following genres: Product design, Technical design, Inventions and inventors, Design, Industrial and commercial arts, illustration
The Toothpick is available in Paperback
The Toothpick was written by Henry Petroski and published by Vintage Books an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
The Toothpick has 443 pages