Infrastructure
A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape
by Brian Hayes · first published 2005
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Photo-rich field guide to industrial infrastructure, covering railroads, power lines, grain elevators, refineries and mills with clear explanations; suggested for anyone curious how the physical world is built.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Covering agriculture, resources, energy, communication, transportation, manufacturing, and waste, this is the "Book of Everything" for the industrial landscape. The objects that fill our everyday environment are streetlights, railroad tracks, antenna towers, highway overpasses, power lines, satellite dishes, and thousands of other manufactured items, many of them so familiar we hardly notice them. Larger and more exotic facilities have transformed vast tracts of the landscape: coal mines, nuclear power plants, grain elevators, oil refineries, and steel mills, to name a few.
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Along these lines: I found Infrastructure by Brian Hayes to be a great book & recommend it to anyone on HN who agrees w/ above comment (or really, just about anyone on HN). http://www.amazon.com/Infrastructure-Field-Guide-Industrial-...
on “The Simple Math of Everything” ↗…Anatomy of a City (http://www.amazon.com/The-Works-Anatomy-Kate-Ascher/dp/01431...). It's slightly out of date (but much more up to date than the OP!). And if you like that, you'll REALLY love Brian Hayes' Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape (http://www.amazon.com/Infrastructure-Field-Guide-Industrial-...). It's porn for people who like to try to figure out what the random towers in a chemical plant…
on “New York Underground” ↗Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape Brian Hayes http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393329593/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp... This book is a "how it works" guide to the infrastructure of modernity: the power…
on “Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?” ↗If you this blog you might also enjoy the book that the author published a few years ago, "Infrastructure: A Guide to the Industrial Landscape" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393349837).
on “A Room with a View” ↗The book Infrastructure, by Brian Hayes, seems similar to your description of Vaclav Smil's book. It's a big book filled with photos and explanations of various infrastructure (mines, factories, railroads, the electrical grid,…
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗I'd recommend Infrastructure: A Guide to the Industrial Landscape by Brian Hayes http://industrial-landscape.com/ It covers everything from railroad tracks, antenna towers, highway overpasses, power lines, grain elevators, oil refineries,…
on “Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronic Components” ↗A good book on this and related subjects is Infrastructure: The Book of Everything for the Industrial Landscape by Brian Hayes. Published in 2006 so almost certainly out of print, but probably easy enough to get on Amazon or similar.
on “Utility poles” ↗Thanks for the recommendation. For a more modern take, the chapter on "The Power Grid" in Brian Hayes' "Infrastructure" is tremendous as well: http://industrial-landscape.com
on “A Field Guide to Power Transmission Lines” ↗You might enjoy "Infrastructure: a guide to the industrial landscape" by Brian Hayes in the meantime.
on “What happens when a reservoir goes dry” ↗