1 The structures in our lives or how to communicate with engineers. - One The difficult birth of the science of elasticity. - 2 Why structures carry loads or the springiness of solids. - 3 The invention of stress and strain or Baron Cauchy and the decipherment of Young's modulus. - 4 Designing for safety or can you really trust strength calculations?. - 5 Strain energy and modem fracture mechanics with a digression on bows catapults and kangaroos. - Two Tension structures. - 6 Tension structures and pressure vessels with some remarks on boilers bats and Chinese junks. - 7 Joints fastenings and people also about creep and chariot wheels. - 8 Soft materials and living structures or how to design a worm. - Three Compression and bending structures. - 9 Walls arches and dams or cloud-capp'd towers and the stability of masonry. - 10 Something about bridges or Saint Bénezèt and Saint Isambard. - 11 The advantage of being a beam with observations on roofs trusses and masts. - 12 The mysteries of shear and torsion or Polaris and the bias-cut nightie. - 13 The various ways of failing in compression or sandwiches skulls and Dr Euler. - Four And the consequence was. - 14 The philosophy of design or the shape the weight and the cost. - 15 A chapter of accidents a study in sin error and metal fatigue. - 16 Efficiency and aesthetics or the world we have to live in. - Appendix 1 Handbooks and formulae. - Appendix 2 Beam theory. - Appendix 3 Torsion. - Appendix 4 The efficiency of columns and panels under compression loads. - Suggestions for further study. Language: English