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Exactly
- How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
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Summary
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2018
Best-selling 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, a phone, a computer, a bicycle, a 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 20th 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 coexist in society?
Critic reviews
"An ingenious argument that the dazzling advances that produced the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, and the revolutions that followed owe their success to a single engineering element: precision.... An enthusiastic popular-science tour of technological marvels...readers will love the ride." (Kirkus)
"Another gem from one of the world’s justly celebrated historians specializing in unusual and always fascinating subjects and people." (Booklist)
"Winchester’s latest is a rollicking work of pop science that entertains and informs." (Publishers Weekly)
What listeners say about Exactly
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr. D. Braithwaite
- 24-02-19
Amazing
Despite my expectations, and given the subject matter, this was one of my favourite books in a long time.
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- Natalia
- 10-01-21
poetic and deeply researched
there was a moment at the very beginning, when I wasn't sure whether this book is good for a lay person. it is very good, as it transpired soon. quite gripping stories of inventions and inventors, history and science beautifully woven together.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sally Margetts
- 26-07-18
usual excellence
l love the way Simon dances around the subjects , bringing all manor of information into the mix.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Craig
- 01-05-23
fascinating
well written and good all round facts. one of the best narration. Almost David Attenborough type narration
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- Denis Rono
- 17-09-18
Well worth it
Beautifully written and beautifully read. My only gripe with the book is that is it not longer an does not contain more charming stories about precision engineering.
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- pockets
- 26-11-18
Fantastic
A really interesting book. Well read and fascinating. It was an insight into the fabric of the modern world.
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- W GRAHAM ESQ
- 24-08-24
The breadth, depth and chronology of precision in engineering
The complexity and range of the subject matter and the author’s understanding and structure for such a vast field was truly enlightening. It will stimulate me to learn much more about this fascinating area of human ingenuity and desire for precision in metrology. Brilliantly thought provoking.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Neil S
- 02-11-18
Full of fascinating insights
Whilst occasionally I've struggled to explain the magic in this book to others, it's definitely there. The central theme is inspirational, but it's also the countless stories of the players big and small which are deftly worked into the larger narrative by Simon that keep this from being purely a technical outpouring. Having the author narrate the audiobook also adds a lot especially as he has brought in a few personal anecdotes.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Mr. C. S. Clyne
- 07-11-20
So interesting
Really engrossing audiobook that I found really interesting ....explaining how technical machines were invented and more importantly how they work.
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- Nicolas Riddalls
- 01-10-18
Fascinating
The story of precision told with gentle dry humour and an eye to the human side of the tale. Very engaging and thoroughly researched.
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