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The perfectionists : how precision engineers created the modern world  Cover Image Large Print Book Large Print Book

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

Winchester, Simon, (author.).

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. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth-century England, 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 resulted in the creation and mass production of items from guns and glass to mirrors, lenses, and cameras--and eventually gave way to further breakthroughs, including gene splicing, microchips, and the Hadron Collider.Simon Winchester takes us back to origins of the Industrial Age, to England where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production: John Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. It was Thomas Jefferson who later exported their discoveries to the fledgling United States, setting the nation on its course to become a manufacturing titan. Winchester moves forward through time, to today's cutting-edge developments occurring around the world, from America to Western Europe to Asia.As he introduces the minds and methods that have changed the modern world, Winchester explores fundamental questions. 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 ultra-precise 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 co-exist in society?

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780062845900
  • ISBN: 006284590X
  • Physical Description: xiv, 576 pages (large print) : illustrations ; 23 cm
  • Edition: First HarperLuxe [large print] edition.
  • Publisher: New York, NY : HarperLuxe, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 563-576).
Formatted Contents Note:
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 -- 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 -- Measure of all things.
Subject: Engineering > History.
Technological innovations > History.
Genre: Large print books.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Scenic Regional.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Scenic Regional-Sullivan LP 909.81 WIN (Text) 3006261675 Large Print NonFiction Available -


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