The perfectionists : how precision engineers created the modern world / Simon Winchester.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Winchester, Simon, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Engineering--History.

Engineering.

History.

Technological innovations--History.

Technological innovations.

Machine design--History.

Machine design.

Metrology--History.

Metrology.

Local Subjects:

Metrology.

Engineering--History.

Machine design--History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 395 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

How precision engineers created the modern world

Place of Publication:

New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]

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?"--Dust jacket.

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-374) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Beardwood Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780062652553

0062652559

OCLC:

1026246387