William Gurstelle (born March 29, 1956) is an American nonfiction author, magazine writer, and inventor. He is a feature columnist for ''

Make Make or MAKE may refer to: * Make (magazine), a tech DIY periodical *Make (software), a software build tool *Make, Botswana, in the Kalahari Desert *Make Architects Make Architects is an international architecture practice headquartered in Londo ...

'' magazine and a columnist and contributing editor at '' Popular Science'' magazine. Previously, he was the Pyrotechnics and Ballistics Editor at ''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (sometimes PM or PopMech) is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do-it-yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation and transportation o ...

'' magazine. He is also the author of several science “

how-to The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is a dormant an all-volunteer project that maintains a large collection of GNU and Linux-related documentation and publishes the collection online. It began as a way for hackers to share their documentation ...

” books published by Crown Books/

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

and

Chicago Review Press Chicago Review Press, or CRP, is a U.S. book publisher and an independent company founded in 1973. Chicago Review Press publishes approximately 60 new titles yearly under eight imprints: Chicago Review Press, Lawrence Hill Books, Academy Chicago, ...

. His best known work is ''Backyard Ballistics,'' which according to ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' magazine, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Other popular titles are ''Absinthe and Flamethrowers'', and ''The Art of the Catapult''. In 2011, ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' stated Gurstelle had sold more than 300,000 of his books. According to James A. Buczynski in '' Library Journal'', Gurstelle's writing "balances scientific explanations of the technologies with profiles of the people who

xplore Xplore may refer to: Science and technology * IEEE Xplore, an online database of IEEE research publications * XploRe, a statistical software environment * Xplore Technologies, designer, marketer and manufacturer of rugged tablet computers * Xplore ...

them."

Selected bibliography

* * * * * * *

References

External links

New York Times Book Review – Absinthe and Flamethrowers

Mythbuster's Adam Savage on The Practical Pyromaniac
–

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

A call to invention: DIY speaker edition - William Gurstelle
– TED-Ed at TEDYouth 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurstelle, William M. 1956 births Living people American engineering writers American science writers Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota American mechanical engineers