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130 reviews for:
The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester
4.03 AVERAGE
130 reviews for:
The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester
4.03 AVERAGE
Winchester's addictive, clean, precise prose makes reading about the 200th machine mentioned a lot less boring that it otherwise would have been. A good set of conclusive morals about the philosophy of precision mentioned near the end as the chase towards perfection become more and more closer to nature's limits. Nothing we make can and ever will be precisely perfect, and that is the universe's intention, admits Winchester.
informative
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
What would otherwise be an interesting read, full of factoids and marginalia, is ruined by two things: the author's writing style, which could be described as pleonastic, garrulous, verbose, or periphrasic (take your pick); and his absurd, fumbling attempts to moralise on the nature of precision ("are we being too precise??!?!").
Also, on several occasions I noted explanations that were simplified to the point of being actually incorrect, so I expect that most of the book plays fast and loose with the truth in pursuit of a 'good' narrative.
Also, on several occasions I noted explanations that were simplified to the point of being actually incorrect, so I expect that most of the book plays fast and loose with the truth in pursuit of a 'good' narrative.
Engineers are probably some of the least appreciated people in the UK and yet if you think about it everything is dependent on them. If there were no engineers you would not have items like your phone, your car, bicycles, kitchen gadgets, computers, electricity and even the very infrastructure that means that you can live life in the modern way. Things are much better built now too, compared to even twenty years ago, that extra precision we have got makes for better quality products. But, what is the difference is between accuracy and precision? And how is that making a difference in our modern world.
Beginning with the machines that started the industrial revolution off, steam engines and the rapid improvements that were made in the tolerance and efficiency of them, to the world's first unpickable lock, and the precision engineering from horologists that made clocks and timepieces more accurate, and people much later than ever before. All of these incremental advances made the things that people were buying a better each time and coupled with new inventions by the likes of John `Iron-Mad' Wilkinson and Joseph Whitworth made making things so much easier and made repeatable manufacture possible.
His stories of the way that engineers have made the modern world moves from the open road, where we learn how the Ford Model T was more precisely made than a Rolls-Royce. Each Rolls-Royce was handcrafted and when the men assembling it came across the odd part that didn't fit they would file and adjust to ensure that it did. Ford did not have the luxury of time to make things fit, each part had to fit, first time, every time. Cars are easy though, compared to aeroplanes, just to get several hundred tonnes of plane, passengers and luggage and off the ground requires another level of engineering expertise. Form the earliest planes that were held together with rivets, modern aircraft are glued together and the jet engines that can lift the great weights into the sky are some of the most powerful machines ever made. The finest engineers have developed turbine blades that can operate in an environment that is actually hotter than the melting temperature of the single crystal titanium alloy that they are made from. Each blade produces more power that an F1 car and they are spinning at around 10,000 rpm. They are reliable too, only very rarely does one of these engines fail, and he describes a flight that had to undertake an emergency landing when one component that was a fraction of a millimetre out self-destructed.
Silicone is immensely important to the modern world. Not only has it been used to fill the gaps in the wall so we can see through them, but its use in lenses have opened up miniature worlds and the wonders of the solar system to us. You are probably carrying around a lot of silicone too; its use in electronics has revolutionised the modern world and the machines that are used to make these ubiquitous microchips that are found in almost everything from coffee machines to watches that can tell you exactly where you are on the planet. These work from the GPS system, a technology that relies on the accurate time as measured using caesium clocks. It is time too that defines our most common measurements like the metre and the kilogramme and rendering the finely made platinum standard items a relic of the museum.
I may have a slight bias in reading and reviewing this as I am an engineer who is qualified in both electronics and mechanical engineering and I have designed things as varied as defence equipment to lighting to speaker cables. I thought that this was a really well-written book about the engineers that have made modern society what it is nowadays. It is well researched and full of interesting and anecdotal tales such as how we can now measure light years to within the width of a human hair that add so much to the story of precision over the years. I liked the way at the beginning of each chapter the tolerance increases for each change in technology and the precision required to achieve the next level up. Excellent book and can highly recommend.
Beginning with the machines that started the industrial revolution off, steam engines and the rapid improvements that were made in the tolerance and efficiency of them, to the world's first unpickable lock, and the precision engineering from horologists that made clocks and timepieces more accurate, and people much later than ever before. All of these incremental advances made the things that people were buying a better each time and coupled with new inventions by the likes of John `Iron-Mad' Wilkinson and Joseph Whitworth made making things so much easier and made repeatable manufacture possible.
His stories of the way that engineers have made the modern world moves from the open road, where we learn how the Ford Model T was more precisely made than a Rolls-Royce. Each Rolls-Royce was handcrafted and when the men assembling it came across the odd part that didn't fit they would file and adjust to ensure that it did. Ford did not have the luxury of time to make things fit, each part had to fit, first time, every time. Cars are easy though, compared to aeroplanes, just to get several hundred tonnes of plane, passengers and luggage and off the ground requires another level of engineering expertise. Form the earliest planes that were held together with rivets, modern aircraft are glued together and the jet engines that can lift the great weights into the sky are some of the most powerful machines ever made. The finest engineers have developed turbine blades that can operate in an environment that is actually hotter than the melting temperature of the single crystal titanium alloy that they are made from. Each blade produces more power that an F1 car and they are spinning at around 10,000 rpm. They are reliable too, only very rarely does one of these engines fail, and he describes a flight that had to undertake an emergency landing when one component that was a fraction of a millimetre out self-destructed.
Silicone is immensely important to the modern world. Not only has it been used to fill the gaps in the wall so we can see through them, but its use in lenses have opened up miniature worlds and the wonders of the solar system to us. You are probably carrying around a lot of silicone too; its use in electronics has revolutionised the modern world and the machines that are used to make these ubiquitous microchips that are found in almost everything from coffee machines to watches that can tell you exactly where you are on the planet. These work from the GPS system, a technology that relies on the accurate time as measured using caesium clocks. It is time too that defines our most common measurements like the metre and the kilogramme and rendering the finely made platinum standard items a relic of the museum.
I may have a slight bias in reading and reviewing this as I am an engineer who is qualified in both electronics and mechanical engineering and I have designed things as varied as defence equipment to lighting to speaker cables. I thought that this was a really well-written book about the engineers that have made modern society what it is nowadays. It is well researched and full of interesting and anecdotal tales such as how we can now measure light years to within the width of a human hair that add so much to the story of precision over the years. I liked the way at the beginning of each chapter the tolerance increases for each change in technology and the precision required to achieve the next level up. Excellent book and can highly recommend.
I appear to have taken a long time to finish this fabulous book, but that's because my economist husband (who has inherited what I describe as a double engineering gene) booknapped it when I was halfway through and has read it as well! This is Winchester at his best, stuffing in the facts layer upon layer with many a diverting side-story and footnote, seeking in his writing the precision he writes about
A very enjoyable read. I love where an author looks at something we take for granted and tells the story of how we got here. In this case, it is precision and the continuing quest for greater and greater precision.
I discovered this author a few years ago and he is one of my favorite authors. Mr. Winchester does his research and writes fascinating books about a wide range of subjects. I found him when my attention was captured by a title "The Professor And The Madman" A fabulous book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. You should read it!
But more about "The Perfectionists". This book takes us through eleven chapters of examples of ever increasing perfection in the tools and machines that we have used to create the things around us and the inventions that we have depended on since the eighteenth century. The thing that I love about this author is that he brings all kinds of facts about all kinds of things together in his chapters and shows how they are linked to create a whole. By the time you finish this book you will have learned a wide range of information about history, living conditions, types of material, politics, inventors, innovators, and yes a few madmen with brilliant ideas and dreams. Best of all you will see how these things and a montage of other information and sources come together to make a captivating story. I highly recommend this book and author. -Thomas D.
But more about "The Perfectionists". This book takes us through eleven chapters of examples of ever increasing perfection in the tools and machines that we have used to create the things around us and the inventions that we have depended on since the eighteenth century. The thing that I love about this author is that he brings all kinds of facts about all kinds of things together in his chapters and shows how they are linked to create a whole. By the time you finish this book you will have learned a wide range of information about history, living conditions, types of material, politics, inventors, innovators, and yes a few madmen with brilliant ideas and dreams. Best of all you will see how these things and a montage of other information and sources come together to make a captivating story. I highly recommend this book and author. -Thomas D.
I do love the author's work, but oddly found this one a tick less satisfying than his other works which I've read. No matter, I'll continue working my way though the rest.