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The Toaster Project: Or A Heroic Attempt To Build A Simple Electric Appliance From Scratch (2011)

by Thomas Thwaites(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1568989970 (ISBN13: 9781568989976)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Princeton Architectural Press

review 1: Really, really disappointing. He ditches his rules about a third of the way through, he fails or does a really bad job a few times but doesn't bother to try doing it better, and in the end throws the whole idea to the wind because his coursework deadline is approaching. The whole book ends up being a poorly-thought-through and unconvincing critique of modern manufacturing instead of what it could be: an interesting examination of where the materials in our appliances come from.Also: this book is truly terribly printed. It relies really heavily on photos, but they're printed in extremely poor color and on pulp-paperback-paper, making them impossible to make out.
review 2: This book is great for anyone interested in what things are made of, sustainability, materi... moreals, or interesting projects. It is basically the result of a UK grad student's final design project, where he tried to make a toaster from scratch, including mining the ore needed to produce the iron parts and making his own plastic. It's a quick read, very funny, and I feel like it is the perfect reading material for any Materials Science and Engineering student like myself. I loved the part where he tried to make his own plastic out of potatoes because I tried the very same thing in my senior year of high school and it turned out failing exactly the same way so that was very amusing. The plastic part was of course my favorite but anyone interested in metallurgy would love the nickel, iron and copper parts as well. It also brings up a lot of issues in how common appliances are made, the issues with consumerism, and suggests possible environmentally benign solutions for some things. less

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