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The Way Things Work
On my ninth birthday, my grandfather gave me a present in the form of a book called "The Way Things Fit Together", and before you go looking for it, it wasn't really called that, it was called "Hoe zit dat in elkaar.", but then I was in Holland at the time. The book described in fine detail how the magnificent world of mechanics and physics worked.
By the time I turned ten I had discovered the library and found an author called David Macaulay. In his books he described things like the underground system of New York and how one would go about dismantling the Empire State Building to ship it to Egypt, he also wrote a book about worshipping toilets, but enough about that already. My surprise was great when I was presented with a CD ROM about how things work -- and by David Macaulay himself. So does this childhood dream of mine live up to the expectation? In one word, "Yes." That's all I have to say.
Just kidding, I'll tell you what you get for your money. In the box is the CD ROM as well as a sample disk from the folks at Doring Kindersley Multimedia. They have done their homework well. You are presented with the seemingly endless pile of information in the form of a book, but there the similarity with its paper cousin ends. Look, for example, at an elevator. All through the description there are highlighted words, such as 'pulley', which bring you to an explanation on how you can lift a Woolly Mammoth, and what gravity has to do with it. Then you can follow the links to information about cranes and so on.
The illustrations give you a great feel for what happens behind the scenes and are littered with little labels, linking to things all over the place. If you want to know about the history of an object, simply click on the history button and presto, there's more information about when the first elevator was made and what comes close in time. You might think that mice, of the electronic variety, not the rodent, are not covered, but you'd be wrong. Included is information on how light beams make your mouse work. There's stuff on the numerous inventors of all these great things that make the world go round. I mean, where would mobile phones be today without the work of Marconi? There are lot's of animations -- the box reckons there are 300, but I didn't count them. Then there's 60 minutes of audio and 70,000 words on this little silver disk.
So what's the recommendation from me? If you don't have any kids and you are looking for an excuse, then buy it for the neighbours, as I feel that it's well worth your investment. It's not cheap, but you do get value for money. David Macaulay's CD ROM of The Way Things Work is available for PC and Apple Macintosh.
Copyright © Onno Benschop 1995.
All rights reserved.
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