The perfectionists : how precision engineers created the modern world / Simon Winchester.
2018
TA19 .W56 2018 (Mapit)
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Details
Title
The perfectionists : how precision engineers created the modern world / Simon Winchester.
Author
Winchester, Simon, author.
Edition
First edition.
ISBN
9780062652553 (hardcover)
0062652559 (hardcover)
0062652559 (hardcover)
Published
New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]
Language
English
Description
xii, 395 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
Call Number
TA19 .W56 2018
Dewey Decimal Classification
620/.009
Summary
"The revered New York Times bestselling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement--precision--in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future."--Amazon.com.
"Precision is so essential a component of modern human life and existence that we seldom stop to think about it. [This book] examines the relatively recent development of the notion of precision--the people who developed it and the ways in which it has shaped the modern world--and the challenges posed and losses risked by our veneration and pursuit of increasingly precise tools and methods. The history of precision as a concept and in practice begins in England with its originators: John Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. It was Thomas Jefferson who first exported their discoveries to the fledgling United States, setting the nation on its course to become a manufacturing titan. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools--machines that make machines. Eventually, the application of precision tools and methods in the development of guns, glass, mirrors, lenses, and cameras gave way to further advancements, including gene splicing, microchips, and the Hadron Collider. The fundamental questions at the heart of The Perfectionists are these: Why is precision important? What are the different tools we use to measure it? Who has invented and perfected it? Has the pursuit of the ultraprecise in so many facets of human life blinded us to other things of equal value, such as an appreciation for the age-old traditions of craftsmanship, art, and high culture? Are we missing something that reflects the world as it is, rather than the world as we think we would wish it to be? And can the precise and the natural coexist in society?"--Jacket.
"Precision is so essential a component of modern human life and existence that we seldom stop to think about it. [This book] examines the relatively recent development of the notion of precision--the people who developed it and the ways in which it has shaped the modern world--and the challenges posed and losses risked by our veneration and pursuit of increasingly precise tools and methods. The history of precision as a concept and in practice begins in England with its originators: John Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. It was Thomas Jefferson who first exported their discoveries to the fledgling United States, setting the nation on its course to become a manufacturing titan. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools--machines that make machines. Eventually, the application of precision tools and methods in the development of guns, glass, mirrors, lenses, and cameras gave way to further advancements, including gene splicing, microchips, and the Hadron Collider. The fundamental questions at the heart of The Perfectionists are these: Why is precision important? What are the different tools we use to measure it? Who has invented and perfected it? Has the pursuit of the ultraprecise in so many facets of human life blinded us to other things of equal value, such as an appreciation for the age-old traditions of craftsmanship, art, and high culture? Are we missing something that reflects the world as it is, rather than the world as we think we would wish it to be? And can the precise and the natural coexist in society?"--Jacket.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-374) and index.
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Table of Contents
Stars, seconds, cylinders, and steam
Extremely flat and incredibly close
A gun in every home, a clock in every cabin
On the verge of a more perfect world
The irresistible lure of the highway
Precision and peril, six miles high
Through a looking glass, distinctly
Where am I, and what is the time?
Squeezing beyond boundaries
On the necessity for equipoise
The measure of all things.
Extremely flat and incredibly close
A gun in every home, a clock in every cabin
On the verge of a more perfect world
The irresistible lure of the highway
Precision and peril, six miles high
Through a looking glass, distinctly
Where am I, and what is the time?
Squeezing beyond boundaries
On the necessity for equipoise
The measure of all things.