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Product Description
Product Description
Replete with the author's striking photographs, Infrastructure is a unique and spectacular guide, exploring all the major "ecosystems" of our modern industrial world, revealing what the structures are and why they are there, and uncovering beauty in unexpected places. Covering agriculture, resources, energy, communication, transportation, manufacturing and waste, this is the perfect companion to the industrial landscape. The objects that fill our everyday environment, such as streetlights, railway tracks, antenna towers, motorway overpasses, satellite dishes and thousands of other manufactured items, are so familiar they have become so familiar we hardly notice them. Larger and more exotic facilities have transformed vast tracts of the landscape: coal mines, nuclear power plants, oil refineries and steel mills, to name a few. This book is a compelling and clear guide for those who want to explore and understand this mysterious world created by man.
About the Author
BRIAN HAYES is a senior writer for American Scientist and a recipient of a National Magazine Award.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THE RAW MATERIALS FOR BUILDING a civilization are mainly things we dig up out of the ground: fuels such as coal, uranium, and petroleum; the ores of iron, copper, aluminum, and dozens of other metals; stone, sand, and clay for building; and a miscellany of other minerals such as sulfur and phosphates. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE RAW MATERIALS FOR BUILDING a civilization are mainly things we dig up out of the ground: fuels such as coal, uranium, and petroleum; the ores of iron, copper, aluminum, and dozens of other metals; stone, sand, and clay for building; and a miscellany of other minerals such as sulfur and phosphates. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a great book.....if you have any interest at all in all the engineering that surrounds us and is so significant to our civilisation then you will find this book informative and easy to understand.
Format:Hardcover
Hayes, writes clearly and concisely on everything from electricity generating to sewerage disposal [not to mention motorway gradients].
Probably better to dip into than to read at one sitting, but an impressive book
Probably better to dip into than to read at one sitting, but an impressive book
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
35 reviews
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Get the hard cover edition
6 Jun 2007
Format:Paperback
Great book but the paperback edition is unwieldy. The book is very wide and printed on high quality, glossy paper which is very heavy. It's almost impossible to read the paperback edition when holding it in your hands because it won't lie flat.
I'm returning it and ordering the hard cover edition.
I'm returning it and ordering the hard cover edition.
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful
How Thing Work
17 Nov 2005
Format:Hardcover
In times past everyone pretty well knew what everything you saw was, how it was built, and what it was for. Now, you can't keep up. This book might be called a field guide to modern technology. It answers the questions you or your scientifically oriented high-schooler might ask, like:
Why are cell phone antennas triangular
Why are power plant cooling towers shaped the way they are
How do train signals work (There's a whole chapter on railroads.)
and bridges
and airports
and ships
and mines
and dams
and sewers
and barns.
It seems that nothing has escaped the camera and inquisitive mind of the author. It's a fascinating book, suitable for coffee table or especially to keep in the car when driving with the inquisitive kid. It's a book that I pick up when interested in something, and then find that I haven't put it down until I've covered ten or twenty pages. I guess I'm still the inquisitive kid.
Why are cell phone antennas triangular
Why are power plant cooling towers shaped the way they are
How do train signals work (There's a whole chapter on railroads.)
and bridges
and airports
and ships
and mines
and dams
and sewers
and barns.
It seems that nothing has escaped the camera and inquisitive mind of the author. It's a fascinating book, suitable for coffee table or especially to keep in the car when driving with the inquisitive kid. It's a book that I pick up when interested in something, and then find that I haven't put it down until I've covered ten or twenty pages. I guess I'm still the inquisitive kid.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
A profusely illustrated, clearly written book
2 April 2006
Format:Hardcover
Brian Hayes has produced an excellent book which descibes the workings of the industrial infrustructure as we see it on the surface of the industrialised world, in particular the US and Italy.
Hayes clearly explains what we often see as mysterious, arcane and inexplicable structures in the industrial landscape in clear terms, without becoming tediously technical and using difficult technical terminology, regarding those who may not be overly familar with the mechanics and procedures of mining, energy production and other similar industries.
The text is profusely illustrated with clear colour photographs with captions on every page. Very few diagrams are included, unless absolutely necessary. The captions associated with the photographs elucidate the workings of the machinery or structures depicted. Details such as pylon insulators are also explained. Importantly, a sense of scale is always provided by pointing out an object in the picture which is recognisable.
This is an important book, long needed. It is non-judgemental, and written with a playfulness which makes it all the more engaging. The analogies and explanations given are clear, and the language is accessible most readers including young people from the age of ten, without being condescending.
Infrastructure is a well designed book, produced on art paper (glossy and china coated), and is actually quite weighty. The layout is clear and functional, good typography and eminently legible. The design matches its contents.
Hayes clearly explains what we often see as mysterious, arcane and inexplicable structures in the industrial landscape in clear terms, without becoming tediously technical and using difficult technical terminology, regarding those who may not be overly familar with the mechanics and procedures of mining, energy production and other similar industries.
The text is profusely illustrated with clear colour photographs with captions on every page. Very few diagrams are included, unless absolutely necessary. The captions associated with the photographs elucidate the workings of the machinery or structures depicted. Details such as pylon insulators are also explained. Importantly, a sense of scale is always provided by pointing out an object in the picture which is recognisable.
This is an important book, long needed. It is non-judgemental, and written with a playfulness which makes it all the more engaging. The analogies and explanations given are clear, and the language is accessible most readers including young people from the age of ten, without being condescending.
Infrastructure is a well designed book, produced on art paper (glossy and china coated), and is actually quite weighty. The layout is clear and functional, good typography and eminently legible. The design matches its contents.
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