Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way

A structural engineer examines the seven most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world.

Some  of humanity’s mightiest engineering achievements are small in  scale—and, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world  runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts,  structural engineer Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary  elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the magnet, the lens, the  string, and the pump.

Tracing the evolution from  Egyptian nails to modern skyscrapers, and Neanderthal string to musical  instruments, Agrawal shows us how even our most sophisticated items are  built on the foundations of these ancient and fundamental breakthroughs.  She explores an array of intricate technologies—dishwashers,  spacesuits, microscopes, suspension bridges, breast pumps—making  surprising connections, explaining how they work, and using her own  hand-drawn illustrations to bring complex principles to life.

Alongside  deeply personal experiences, she recounts the stories of remarkable—and  often uncredited—scientists, engineers, and innovators from all over  the world, and explores the indelible impact these creators and their  creations had on society. In preindustrial Britain, nails were so  precious that their export to the colonies was banned—and women were  among the most industrious nail makers. The washing machine displayed at  an industrial fair in Chicago in 1898 was the only machine featured  that was designed by a woman. The history of the wheel, meanwhile,  starts with pottery, and takes us to India’s independence movement,  where making clothes using a spinning wheel was an act of civil  disobedience.

Eye-opening and engaging, Nuts and Bolts reveals the hidden building blocks of our modern world, and shows how engineering has fundamentally changed the way we live.