How Products Are Made: An Illustrated Guide to Product Manufacturing (How Products Are Made) Volume 1 [Hardcover]

Neil Schlager (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This fascinating book, which launches a series on the manufacturing processes of products from foods to cosmetics to electronics to vehicles, details the manufacture of 101 randomly selected items. The products covered here are a curious mix, including automobiles, blue jeans, chewing gum, jet engines, microwave ovens, pantyhose, salsa, stainless steel, tortilla chips, and zippers. Ranging from four to seven pages, each entry includes the product's description, history, design, manufacturing process, raw materials, by-products, future uses, and a bibliography. The text is nontechnical, and the illustrations are clear, making this book appropriate for YAs as well as adult lay readers. The entries are generally adequate, though some are extremely brief; one can only hope that, as future volumes are compiled, the editor will choose products whose manufacture can be successfully described in a brief space. All in all, however, this is a useful reference tool for school, public, and undergraduate collections.
- H. Robert Malinowsky, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In addition to being a guide to the manufacture of more than 100 products, this first volume in a new series devotes roughly equal space to a variety of nonmanufacturing information. A new volume will be published every two years. The eclectic roster of products examined ranges from air bags, aluminum foil, artificial limbs, and aspirin to zippers and zirconium. Included are retail goods as well as intermediate goods used in the manufacture of other products.

The text layout and the illustrations are up to Gale's usual high standards, and organization is designed for ease of use. Each article is divided into several sections, such as background, history, raw materials, design, the manufacturing process, quality control, byproducts, the future, and where to learn more. The section on the manufacturing process is broken down into numbered steps. Each article is accompanied by one or more clear line drawings or diagrams. For some 10 percent of the articles, William S. Pretzer, a manufacturing historian and curator at the Henry Ford Museum, has contributed boxed entries on the developmental history of the product. Books and periodicals cited in the where-to-learn-more sections are up-to-date (including at least one 1994 entry) and often represent both popular and industry sources. A 15-page index includes personal names and subjects from within entries.

For many products, much of the information can be found in a general encyclopedia, though with less detail on the actual manufacturing process. Some products--golf cart, file cabinet, chewing gum, and nail polish, for instance--are unlikely to warrant entries in general encyclopedias. One inconsistency here is that an extremely complex product such as the automobile is allotted hardly anymore space than the entries for brick, chalk, or tortilla chips. This useful volume belongs on the shelves of secondary school, public, and academic libraries right next to David Macaulay's whimsical but informative The Way Things Work.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 552 pages
• Publisher: Gale (December 10, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081038907X
• ISBN-13: 978-0810389076
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,847,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)