Home › History › It Looked Good on Paper: Bizarre Inventions, Design Disasters, and Engineering Follies
  • It Looked Good on Paper: Bizarre Inventions, Design Disasters, and Engineering Follies by Bill Fawcett book cover
1 1

It Looked Good on Paper: Bizarre Inventions, Design Disasters, and Engineering Follies

by Bill Fawcett

Be the first to review this book

A history of inventions and projects that went wrong

$18.70 USD
$29.22 USD $18.70 USD
Save 36%

Paperback New English

Delivery to your door
In stock·Dispatches in 1–2 business days
Standard shipping* from $4.35
Standard shipping transit* 5–8 business days after dispatch

Faster options are available.

Rates and delivery estimates depend on your destination and item quantity. Estimates are informational only; the final shipping method and rate are selected at checkout.
Secure checkout
American Express Apple Pay DiscoverGoogle Pay Mastercard PayPalVisa
30-day eligible returns Returns & refunds policy

AlbakiReads Editorial

A history of inventions and projects that went wrong

Bill Fawcett assembles more than thirty-five chapters on technological and design failures, pairing familiar examples with lesser-known misfires. The range runs from Roman lead water pipes and the Ford Edsel to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the Hubble telescope’s early flaw, the Spruce Goose, and a failed Mars mission. Framed around the gap between optimistic planning and real-world performance, the book treats costly blunders, impractical machines, and flawed engineering as a broad historical record of ideas that did not work as intended.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in the history of technology and engineering
  • Fans of curious historical failures and abandoned inventions
  • Browsers who enjoy collections of unusual factual episodes

Themes

Engineering failuresDesign disastersInvention historyTechnological ambitionUnintended consequences

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A remarkable compendium of wild schemes, mad plans, crazy inventions, and truly glorious disasters

Every phenomenally bad idea seemed like a good idea to someone. How else can you explain the Ford Edsel or the sword pistol--absolutely absurd creations that should have never made it off the drawing board? It Looked Good on Paper gathers together the most flawed plans, half-baked ideas, and downright ridiculous machines throughout history that some second-rate Einstein decided to foist on an unsuspecting populace with the best and most optimistic intentions. Some failed spectacularly. Others fizzled after great expense. One even crashed on Mars. But every one of them at one time must have looked good on paper, including:

  • The lead water pipes of Rome
  • The Tacoma Narrows Bridge--built to collapse
  • The Hubble telescope--the $2 billion scientific marvel that couldn't see
  • The Spruce Goose--Howard Hughes's airborne atrocity: big, expensive, slow, unstable, and made of wood

With more than thirty-five chapters full of incredibly insipid inventions, both infamous and obscure, It Looked Good on Paper is a mind-boggling, endlessly entertaining collection of fascinating failures.

Shipping & returnsShipping options, delivery timing, and our return policy.

In-stock items normally dispatch within 1–2 business days. The ZIP-code estimator on this page is informational only; the final shipping method, price, and availability are confirmed at checkout for your full order.

For the initial delivery estimate we use these transit windows after dispatch: Standard 5–8 business days, Expedited 2–4 business days, and Priority 1–2 business days. Holiday delays are not included.

Eligible items can be returned within 30 days in accordance with our return policy.

Customer reviews

You may also like

View all