Finally finished this after an abortive start a few years ago (the original ebook produced chapters in a totally random order). It's an interesting and fairly accessible look at how structures and materials work. My basic scientific background definitely helped, but the book is full of diagrams and examples - and it helpfully emphasises that the equations can be skipped.

That being said, it was originally published in 1978, the author flourished in the 1940s, and that does show up both in the examples used and in the odd, dated way he talks about women in a few places (nothing pervy, not complaining women can't be engineers or anything - just odd). Presumably it's been updated somewhat for the 1991 edition, but that's still 30 years of social progress. There's probably a better equivalent out there nowadays. ( )

Interesting. Easy to understand. Somewhat old fashioned writing style. ( )

Very interesting book, I learned a lot. Gordon's prose is readable. He is also opinionated and throws in just the right number of anecdotes. I read this book while also watching the "Great Courses" class, "Understanding the World's Greatest Structures," by Stephen Ressler, and think those lectures covered a lot of the same material but with more compelling examples, buildings and bridges. ( )

Structures, or Why Things Don't Fall Down
J.E. Gordon
May 22, 2013

A Folio reprint of a 1978 book on engineering, mostly engineering materials. The author seems to be an engineer possibly summing up his career, with a direct and opinionated voice. He explains technical details artfully, describing Young's modulus of elasticity, mathematics of cantilevers, and the desirable properties of wood. The volume has excellent, but too few photographs, and good stories of structures that were unexpectedly good and spectacularly bad. ( )

Indeholder "List of Plates", "Foreword", "Acknowledgements", "Chapter 1 - The structure of our lives - or how to communicate with engineers", "Part One - The difficult birth of the science of elasticity", "Chapter 2 - Why structures carry loads - or the springiness of solids", "Chapter 3 - The invention of stress and strain - or Baron Cauchy and the decipherment of Young's modulus", "Chapter 4 - Designing for safety - or can you really trust strength calculations?", "Chapter 5 - Strain energy and modern fracture mechanics - with a digression on bows, catapults and kangaroos", "Part Two - Tension Structures", "Chapter 6 - Tension structures and pressure vessels - with some remarks on boilers, bats and Chinese Junks", "Chapter 7 - Joints, fastenings and people - also about creep and chariot wheels", "Chapter 8 - Soft Materials and Living Structures - or how to design a worm", "Part Three - Compression and Bending Structures", "Chapter 9 - Walls, arches and dams - or cloud-capp'd towers and the stability of masonry", "Chapter 10 - Something about Bridges - or Saint Bénezèt and Saint Isambard", "Chapter 11 - The advantage of being a beam - with observations on roofs, trusses and masts", "Chapter 12 - The mysteries of shear and torsion - or Polaris and the bias-cut nightie", "Chapter 13 - The various ways of failing in compression - or sandwiches, skulls and Dr Euler", "Part Four- And the Consequence was...", "Chapter 14 - The philosophy of Design - or the shape, the weight and the cost", "Chapter 15 - A chapter on Accidents - a study in sin, error and metal fatigue", "Chapter 16 - 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", "Suggestions for further study", "Index".

Vældig lærerig og underholdende bog om hvad der holder gulvet oppe under fødderne på folk og taget fra at falde ned ( )