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143 reviews for:
EXACTLY: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester, Simon Winchester
4.04 AVERAGE
143 reviews for:
EXACTLY: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester, Simon Winchester
4.04 AVERAGE
Another solid work of science history by an old pro. And read by him too - which was OK, he’s quite a slow narrator but bumping up the speed to 1.5x brought it up to at least conversational speeds and didn’t distort his voice too much.
If you’ve ever been curious about how and why engineers talk about “tolerance” and measurement, and how we are now measuring into the subatomic level, this book is for you. And, as all works of engineering history do, the most interesting parts are when precision breaks down and you have billion-dollar problems like the original issue with the Hubble telescope.
If you’ve ever been curious about how and why engineers talk about “tolerance” and measurement, and how we are now measuring into the subatomic level, this book is for you. And, as all works of engineering history do, the most interesting parts are when precision breaks down and you have billion-dollar problems like the original issue with the Hubble telescope.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Precision is something that is so integral to our lives it is almost impossible to imagine what life was like without it. Precision has given us the ability to replicate an object infinitely, and with this ability came the foundations of the production line and the industrial revolution.
We drive around in cars that are made to be exactly the same as every other car of the same model. We walk in shoes of a certain size and when we need another pair we can just ask for that size with the reasonable certainty they will fit. We go to the hardware store for screws or nails and know that each will be of the same dimensions as the others in the packet. All of this is possible because of the skills and imaginations of numerous engineers over the last few centuries - each has pushed to make their cannon, clock, gun, engine or screw better than what went before.
Better equals easier to use, easier to fix, parts that are made exactly so that they can be interchanged. Better equals precision.
Simon Winchester's fascination with precision started with the tools his father would bring home from work and you can see that early fascination coming out in the detail of this book. We get both the mechanical and human stories of the men (and it is mostly men) and their machines who have changed the world into a more precise place.
Told chronologically and picking out the most significant and original advancements Winchester builds a picture of what precision has meant over time and the reason it is so integral to our lives today. The way this story is told and the minutia of detail means this book will definitely appeal to the more mechanically minded - I'm going to give this to my dad as I'm sure he's going to love it.
We drive around in cars that are made to be exactly the same as every other car of the same model. We walk in shoes of a certain size and when we need another pair we can just ask for that size with the reasonable certainty they will fit. We go to the hardware store for screws or nails and know that each will be of the same dimensions as the others in the packet. All of this is possible because of the skills and imaginations of numerous engineers over the last few centuries - each has pushed to make their cannon, clock, gun, engine or screw better than what went before.
Better equals easier to use, easier to fix, parts that are made exactly so that they can be interchanged. Better equals precision.
Simon Winchester's fascination with precision started with the tools his father would bring home from work and you can see that early fascination coming out in the detail of this book. We get both the mechanical and human stories of the men (and it is mostly men) and their machines who have changed the world into a more precise place.
Told chronologically and picking out the most significant and original advancements Winchester builds a picture of what precision has meant over time and the reason it is so integral to our lives today. The way this story is told and the minutia of detail means this book will definitely appeal to the more mechanically minded - I'm going to give this to my dad as I'm sure he's going to love it.
A fine if rambly book that dives into the curiosities about some of the most intricate gadgets that allow our society to function.
Much of the detail went over my head but the details of how history unfolded was fascinating
informative
It's pretty good. Some parts I found more interesting than others, and the writing was better in some parts than others, but overall I have no regerts.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
Simon Winchester has a gift for writing books about my niche, weird obsessions, and this is one of them. The book explores the history of the concepts of precision and accuracy, ideals that did not really exist before the Industrial Revolution, mass production, capitalism, and ubiquitous technology, but they now define the world we live in and how most people understand it.