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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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Exactly
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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)
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What listeners say about Exactly
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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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- 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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- 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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- 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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- Alistair Kelman
- 12-06-18
A beautiful and empathetic clarity of expression
If ever there was a book which is better in its Audible version than in its printed prose this is it. Simon Winchester's love of language and engineering wafts out of this dulcet recording with every chapter providing a story arc which resonates in the mind. I have listened to "Exactly" while walking in Richmond Park, while riding on buses and trains and while resting in bed after a long day. It is one of those rare Audible books which you wish to listen to again and again - the prose becomes a kind of poetry; a sonnet singing the praises of precise engineering and how it has built the modern world.
Much of this book is really new - since the author has pulled together threads from sources which have been classified as state secrets and commercial secrets, accident reports and annual reports. How was it that Rolls Royce nearly caused the death of over 450 people in an air disaster in Singapore? What are the lessons to be learned from this failure? What are the limits of precision?
Capturing machine-processes in words is not easy. But the sonorous Winchester voice over his carefully selected words performs this task admirably. He uses many of the tricks of advocacy to get complex ideas across, describing the same thing three times but using subtly different phrasing and wording so that a composite three-dimensional image can be built up in the mind. This is a master communicator at his best - leaving a legacy in a recording which will be enjoyed for all time.
Listen to it and enjoy it. You will never regret this purchase.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Jason Davidson
- 01-07-18
Fascinating stuff
A really fascinating, well researched account of how important accurate measurement has been throughout the ages. I could listen to the narrator, who is also the author, all day long he has such a soothing voice.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anthony James Castles
- 14-07-20
Enjoyable, informative and stimulating
Excellent narrative linking many insights into the modern world. I was familiar with most of the topics but still good to brush up on the facts peesented here. I found myself branching off to explore many subj3cts in more detail leading to uilding a reading list - truly hyperlinked.
The author was unknown to me but I am hungry for more!
Two observation on content:
- on semiconductors the Bipolar transistor is a current controlled device with an Emmiter, Base and collector terminals. The FET Field Effect Transistor - a voltagec controlled device - ame next with a Source, Gate and Drain;
- still greater accuracy of time on GPS satellites is gained by taking into account the relativistic effects caused by gravity and speed.
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- Glenn
- 24-07-20
exactly what I like
a fascinating dip into the worlds of mechanical and electronic engineering and physics. A historical view that is then brought up to the present day. wonderfully performed by the author, I could listen to his voice all day. would love to read an autobiography by him. highly recommended for your inner geek.
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