Customer Reviews

How Things Are Made: From Automobiles to Zippers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
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If you enjoy learning about how things are made and how they work, then you will find this book a treasure trove of information. It goes beyond the more elementary "How Things Work" series, because it also covers the history, manufacture, materials, quality control, future evolution, and additional reading for many common household and technical objects. Behind its clever denim jeans pocket-clad cover, the book presents an alphabetical arrangement of items from airbags to zippers, including pencils, salsa, tires, helicopters, compact discs, lightbulbs, and many more.

Besides the basic information mentioned above, there are sidebars and boxes containing additional fascinating facts about the products. Here are some examples:

- The YKK symbol you see on most zippers stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, the manufacturer of most zippers since 1939.
- The "pearl" in pearlized nail polish is actually produced from small pieces of fish scales and skin.
- A guitar craftsman is known as a "luthier."
- The largest consumer of rubber bands in the world is the U.S. Post Office.

Not only is this a valuable reference for specific items you want to learn about, but you will enjoy opening it at random for the pleasure of discovering something new about something very ordinary.

I sent this informative book to my nieces as part of their Christmas package. My Sister reported that they couldn't put it down and were fascinated by the information they learned from it.

This was an interesting yet fun book. For those who have a curious nature this is a good one to read.

As the title of this book said, this hardback book contains many items and how they are/were made. The book does not contain every item in the world, but the ones the author chose to explain were fun to read.

PS: ...The book's cover is just amazing! The heavy-duty cover is made from thick denim with a pocket in the front. So, if you are giving this book as a gift, and the information does not impress, then the cover sure will.

Excellent reading - easy to read a little, stop and come back (like read a section before bed at night) Answers a lot of question in an understandable way!

Got this one at a yard sale and I'm very glad I only paid 50 cents for it. A collection of chapters describing how many things you don't care about are made, seemingly picked at random. Rubber bands? Pencils? Nail polish? Salsa? Salsa??? How about water: how is water made?

There are many interesting devices and objects that are manufactured in clever and creative ways. Few of them are in this book. There's a couple of interesting subjects: jet engines, guitars, helicopters. But some are very incomplete - the chapter on watches focuses entirely on electronic quartz watches. They completely ignore the many mechanical watches that are still made on assembly lines and by skilled craftsmen. I'd pass on this one, or contact me and I'll sell you my copy for 50 cents.

I bought this for my brother in law for christmas one year and it is such a cool book! It is actually made out of blue jeans! Its a great gift for someone who watches the show "How its Made" or likes the discovery channel!

Lots of interesting explanations. Poor pictures. Total lack of detail to make room for quantity. Cute but no big deal. To the point of boring.