Title:
The perfectionists : how precision engineers created the modern world
Summary:
Simon Winchester traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement: precision. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth-century, 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 of mass production. From its origins in the Industrial Age to today's cutting-edge developments occurring around the world, from America to Western Europe to Asia. As the author introduces the minds and methods that have changed the modern world, he 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? And can the precise and the natural co-exist in society?
General Note:
Compact discs.
Edition:
Unabridged.
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.
Physical Description:
10 audio discs (11 3/4 hr.) : CD audio, digital ; 4 3/4 in.
Genre:
Added Corporate Author:
Publisher:
HarperAudio, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,
Publication Date:
2018
ISBN:
9780062850843
Publication Information:
[New York] : HarperAudio, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2018]
℗2018
Call Number:
CDB 620 WINCHEST