Edward Tenner, "Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences" (APS Press, 2025)

Jul 11, 2025

Edward Tenner, an independent writer and scholar at the Smithsonian, delves into the unexpected consequences of innovation. He discusses how lifeboats after the Titanic contributed to future disasters and why certain dog breeds symbolize nations. Tenner explores the origins of scientific breakthroughs in shadow studies and the evolution of technology and craftsmanship. He also examines the interplay of AI and creative thought, emphasizing the need for balance between technology and human agency.

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INSIGHT

Career Pivot Fueled by Curiosity

Edward Tenner's career shift from academic history to independent wide-ranging essayist reflects his love for interdisciplinary surprises.
He embraces exploring diverse topics for fresh insights rather than narrow specialization.

INSIGHT

Human Factor in Disasters

Transportation disasters often reveal human and social factors more than engineering failures.
Most disasters involve competent, well-regarded people operating with accepted risky norms.

ANECDOTE

Hindenburg's Smoking Lounge Paradox

The Hindenburg had a smoking lounge because half its wealthy passengers smoked, and no-smoking policy would have hurt sales.
Safety relied on stewards ensuring no lit cigarettes left the lounge, an unpromising arrangement accepted by all.

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How did the addition of lifeboats after the Titanic shipwreck contribute to another tragedy in Chicago harbor three years later? How efficient are wild animals as investors, and how do dog breeds become national symbols? Why have scientific breakthroughs so often originated in the study of shadows? How did the file card prepare scholarship and commerce for the rise of electronic data processing, and why did the visual metaphor of the tab survive into today's graphic interfaces? Why have Amish artisans played an important role in manufacturing advanced technology? Why was United Shoe Machinery the Microsoft of the 1890s? Surprises like these, Edward Tenner believes, can help us deal with the technological issues that confront us now.

Since the 1980s, Edward Tenner has contributed essays on technology, design, and culture to leading magazines, newspapers, and professional journals, and has been interviewed on subjects ranging from medical ethics to typography. Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences (American Philosophical Society Press, 2025)--named for one of the paradoxes that can result from the inherent contradictions between consumer safety and product marketing--brings many of Tenner's essays together into one volume for the first time, accompanied by new introductions by the author on the theme of each work. As an independent historian and public speaker, Tenner has spent his career deploying concepts from economics, engineering, psychology, science, and sociology, to explore both the negative and positive surprises of human ingenuity.

Edward Tenner is an independent writer and Distinguished Scholar in the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. He was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and teaches the course Understanding Disasters at Princeton University.

Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network.

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