Why reissue a book on engineering design first written nearly thirty
years ago? It was well ahead of its time in 1971, and although much of
its approach is now commonplace, plenty still remains to be adopted. But
above all, where other books have a few pages on the key problems of
design, which are how to produce good ideas and how to develop and
improve them, this book has chapters. Engineering science is central to
most design, but it figures hardly at all in other texts, even though it
is the principal study of engineering students. In this book it assumes
its proper place, figuring extensively in the examples. Progress in
design comes usually, not from brainstorming and the like, but from the
development of insight, often rooted in science. This book gives
examples of insight and how to develop it. In design, there are
recurrent forms of problem, such as disposition and match- ing, treated
here and not elsewhere. Frequently, insight can come and advances can be
made by recognising and working on on these recurrent forms. Sometimes
design can be reduced to a systematic process, where one idea fol- lows
logically from another, as this book shows. Sometimes, too, a
breakthrough can come from finding a way to invalidate a step in a
logical chain and so provide a starting point for a new design.
