When Henry Petroski looks at a pencil, he sees far more than a simple writing tool. Dr. Petroski, a professor of civil engineering and history at Duke University, views the pencil as a symbol of engineering. In his 1992 book, The Pencil: A History of Design & Circumstance, Dr. Petroski uses the pencil as a representation of the engineer and the pencil-making process as an ideal for the engineering method.