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Exactly
Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World | Simon Winchester
16 posts | 11 read | 11 to read
Bestselling author Simon Winchester writes a magnificent history of the pioneering engineers who developed precision machinery to allow us to see as far as the moon and as close as the Higgs boson. Precision is the key to everything. It is an integral, unchallenged and essential component of our modern social, mercantile, scientific, mechanical and intellectual landscapes. The items we value in our daily lives - a camera, phone, computer, bicycle, car, a dishwasher perhaps - all sport components that fit together with precision and operate with near perfection. We also assume that the more precise a device the better it is. And yet whilst we live lives peppered and larded with precision, we are not, when we come to think about it, entirely sure what precision is, or what it means. How and when did it begin to build the modern world? Simon Winchester seeks to answer these questions through stories of precision's pioneers. Exactly takes us back to the origins of the Industrial Age, to Britain where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production: John 'Iron-Mad' Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. Thomas Jefferson exported their discoveries to the United States as manufacturing developed in the early twentieth century, with Britain's Henry Royce developing the Rolls Royce and Henry Ford mass producing cars, Hattori's Seiko and Leica lenses, to today's cutting-edge developments from Europe, Asia and North America. 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?
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REPollock
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Mehso-so

I probably would have liked this more as a paper book. The author read the audiobook and his voice is so scratchy and haggard-sounding that I found it distracted me from the content.

Riveted_Reader_Melissa I hate it when that happens. 5y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Good luck with the masks though! 5y
StaceGhost What a beautiful mask! & I have a weird thing with voices, too. 5y
20 likes3 comments
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REPollock
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Debating whether to do #24B4Monday this weekend.

saresmoore My kitty is, too. I have to vacuum out the black cat hairs before I can draw a bath. 5y
saresmoore Also, my vote is that you should always do a Readathon if you want to and time/life allows! 5y
jb72 We would love to have you aboard. And PS you can expect The Bookseller of Kabul in a few days. I apologize for taking so long. 5y
JanuarieTimewalker13 Hahahaha!!! I have one of those!! 5y
33 likes4 comments
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REPollock
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This is a good audiobook but I wish they had used a voice artist bc the author‘s voice is hard to listen to. It sounds like he‘s dying of throat cancer. 😕

Suet624 😂😂😂 5y
Crazeedi Interesting author, I have a couple of his books, and would like to read more by him 5y
REPollock @Crazeedi yes! I think I‘ve read maybe three of his other books and loved them! This is my first audiobook of his. 5y
19 likes1 stack add3 comments
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seydoggy
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Pickpick

As a former machinist and metrologist and someone who is obsessed with precision, this book was absolutely up my alley. From the intro, where I knew exactly what his father had brought home and rung together, to the history of precision, to measurement by quantum standard, I completely geeked out on The Perfectionists. I will likely return to this book couple more times in the future.

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balletbookworm
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Pickpick

Another solid work of science history by an old pro.

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.

balletbookworm Read by Winchester 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. 6y
sk888888 I bumped up the speed also; love his voice, but it was a little too slow at normal speed. Love Winchester! Working my way through his books, slowly but surely. 6y
18 likes2 comments
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RealLifeReading
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Pickpick

The topic - precision engineering - isn‘t something that immediately draws me in. But having read Winchester‘s books before, I know them to be well-written and thoroughly researched. And when I listened to the sample, I was drawn in to the story because he began with how his father used to work as an engineer in a factory and one day brought home some machined metal tiles called gauge blocks used for measuring things. (C‘td below)

RealLifeReading The Perfectionists is full of facts and insights that I had never thought to think about, all these big and small things that make our world go round, that enables me to type this sentence out on my phone, for eg. How our world has changed so much in what is just a few decades. You don‘t have to love science or engineering to read or listen to this fascinating book. You just need a little bit of curiosity about how this world is as it is today 6y
KimHM I‘ve been looking for a new audiobook; putting this on my list. Thanks! 6y
RealLifeReading @KimHM you're welcome! Hope you like it 6y
99 likes6 stack adds3 comments
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RealLifeReading
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When woken before 5 on a Saturday by a kid with a bloody nose, and then the rain starts splattering down and all hope of going back to sleep is forsaken, it‘s time to just get out of bed and make waffles. #audiocooking

Cortg Yum! 6y
RadicalReader @RealLifeReading waffles are always delicious and a great weekend breakfast 6y
Zelma Those look delicious. I have been craving a good waffle or pancake lately. 6y
tournevis Your life sounds like my life, including the sleepy nose bleeds 6y
tracey38 Yummy waffles for a Saturday morning. 6y
112 likes5 comments
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RealLifeReading
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Also tried my hand at making some financiers for the first time. I didn‘t get that dome on the top so I‘ll have to try again. Plus they‘re such delightful little chocolatey bites
Recipe here https://wildwildwhisk.com/dark-chocolate-financiers/
#audiobaking

KarenUK They look pretty fabulous to me... dome or no dome! 💕 6y
94 likes1 comment
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RealLifeReading
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Some #audiobaking this afternoon with Simon Winchester reading to me. I made Chinese bakery-style sausage buns using tangzhong dough.

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charliemarlowe
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New audio book! Going to start it tomorrow!

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RealLifeReading
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Continuing work on the shawl. The kids are hard at work on the Lego Ninjago video game (after having done their chores, piano practice) so I‘ve got my headphones on.

SW-T Lovely 😊 6y
tracey38 Very pretty 6y
JulAnna Love your colors! 6y
See All 10 Comments
Courtneyjo_reads I love it! 6y
Johanna414 I love it! What yarn are you using? 6y
RealLifeReading @Johanna414 it‘s lion brand cupcake yarn in gelato! 6y
Johanna414 @RealLifeReading thanks! I figured it was a cake of some sort. I‘ll have to keep an eye out for some next time I‘m yarn shopping 6y
kspenmoll Looks beautiful! 6y
RealLifeReading @kspenmoll thank you😘 6y
128 likes10 comments
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RealLifeReading
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Starting a new audiobook. I seem to be moving through lots of audiobooks these days. It wasn‘t exactly a topic that particularly drew me in at first but listening to the sample, I like how it was his father‘s factory work and interest in engineering that drew him into this topic.

92 likes2 stack adds
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rabbitprincess
Pickpick

This ended up being really interesting! My favourite chapter was Chapter 6, about how jet engines are manufactured. The glossary at the end of the book is well worth reading, too.

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rabbitprincess
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At the Great Exhibition of 1851, the exhibits were divided into broad classes. Class 3 was "Substances Used as Food" Sounds yummy ?

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Mae_1
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Picked up a few good things at my local bookstore today. 🤗 And it‘s autumn! 🍁🍂

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Cedricsmom
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This book is so engaging. After finishing HOMEGOING, I really needed to do a complete 180° read, but because this book is currently in the industrial revolution, the 19th century, I know that African slaves played a role in what was going on at that time in Britain and the United States. After all Eli Whitney did create the cotton gin. I‘m listening to this on CD and Simon Winchester has a wonderful reading voice. Great for science geeks.

Cedricsmom #twointhree weekend. I am almost done with this baby. I wish I could convey how fabulous this book is, how engaging and fascinating it is and how fun it is to listen to the audio book. Anyway can I count this finish for the challenge, or does it have to be a book that I start and finish this weekend? 6y
Cedricsmom #twointhree I‘m so happy someone else enjoyed this book. Winchester has a great voice and he managed to make some pretty difficult concepts understandable and engaging. 6y
5 likes2 comments