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142 reviews for:
EXACTLY: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester, Simon Winchester
4.04 AVERAGE
142 reviews for:
EXACTLY: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester, Simon Winchester
4.04 AVERAGE
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.
This book was a fun history of precision and engineering as told through specific inventions or products.
The first half was great. The second lost the plot a bit, slowed down, and i lost interest.
Kertakaikkisen kiehtova kirja mittaus- ja toistotarkkuuden historiasta.
This book sounded good in the reviews I read, but I just couldn't get into it. I should have known there might be a problem because even though the Goodread reviews were positive, there were not really very many (I think something like 130). First I was skimming paragraphs, then whole pages, and finally just leafing through looking for anything that caught my eye. Partly the problem is the book is just boring, but I also think it's the wrong media. The author starts by talking about boring holes in iron blocks to make cannons and steam engines. All I could think about as I read was I would really like to see that done. What kind of tool in the 1700's could cut a precise hole in cast iron, and how does it work? I would love to see a video of that but the book doesn't even contain many pictures (and many of them are the men who invented things). Then the author goes on to describe a complex machine made by the ancient Greeks. Again, no pictures. So, I'm sure the subject of this book is a really fascinating story, but it just doesn't make a great book.
Wonderful walk through the history of manufacturing, which is essentially the history of us and our tech