Did you know that treatment of waste water undergoes a variety of fascinating processes? This may include raking waste water through a bar screen, separating grit from water in a grit chamber, skimming cleaner water in a clarifier, biologically treating water in an aeriation basin and finally disinfecting near-ready water with ultraviolet light, chlorine or ozone before making its way back into the water system. Solid waste material goes on an equally fascinating adventure as it evolves from useless, toxic sludge into energy-producing biogas.
If you found any of that information interesting, you may want to continue feeding your curiosity with this excellent illustrated book – or visit a therapist.
This isn’t a book for engineers. It’s a book for people like me; people who enjoy climbing to the top of mount stupid in the Dunning-Kruger mountain range and getting airlifted out before the dangerous descent into the valley of despair. People whose primary value is information, and to whom learning things is energising, but who also have the attention span of a mop and need a quick and dirty learning fix before moving along.
You’re safer than you think from country-specific relevance here, as the book generally deals with universal engineering concepts. Occasionally, particularly in the chapter on roadways, you get a reminder that you’re reading a book through an American lens, but these instances are mercifully infrequent.
So that’s the pitch; if you want to learn just enough to be dangerous about the electrical grid, roadways, communications, bridges, tunnels, railways, dams, pumping stations, construction and others besides, this is a superbly fascinating venture.
Book club model: Tom, Dick and Harry
Glyphs & Graphs 