The Way Things Work Now: From Levers to Lasers, Windmills to Wi-fi, A Visual Guide to the World of Machines by David Macaulay
I love looking up a mundane thing. A thing I never even think about... then learn what I did not know or even consider. Having just been to Anchorage it is interesting to see the inner working of an escalator (and see a picture of a dog riding the escalator). The elevator picture looks like the clear elevator in the airport. I like this book because it makes an engineer's view of the objects all around us visible. The pictures are clear and the writing is too... "At the tip of a ballpoint pen is a tiny metal ball in a socket. Ink flows from the ink tube through a narrow channel to the ball, which rotates to transfer the ink to the paper. The ink dries immediately." (141) . A simple thing... clear and in view now, just like the elevator at the airport. Thanks to writing.
