The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World

This is going to be the strangest review I will probably ever write. You see, I am the reason this book exists.My name is Colin Povey, and as the book explains (see page 7) I suggested to the author 7 years ago that the world needed a book on the story of precision.And before I get any further, I must tell you that I get NO money nor any other remuneration from the sales of the book. Zip, zero, nada.So, why does the world need a book on the history of, the story of precision? Read on.In college, I was privileged to take a pair of courses, one on the History of Technology, and one on the History of Science, and both taught by the brilliant professor Richard Shallenberg.I loved those courses so much, I have continued to read, study, and even research the topic for the past 40 years.One thing came to me as I studied this history, and that was how much precision has improved over time. The first Newcomen steam engines had a terrible fit of the piston to the walls of the cylinder, with some gaps as large as an inch, if not a little larger. Today, in computer chips, transistors are only 10 nm, or 10 billionths of a meter, wide.So, I thought, I'll find a book on the history of precision.Amazon had nothing like it.Neither did any other on-line or physical book stores.I went to my rather large county library, and again, I struck out.I went to a large University library, and found nothing locally, though one previous book had been written on the subject, but it was more than 80 years old.So, I though, the world needs a book on the history of precision. But I am not a writer (as you can tell if you have gotten this far), I'm a tech geek, a nerd. So I sent a note to a favorite author who wrote books on similar subjects. He was nice enough to send a note back saying he didn't think it was a good idea.So, then I remembered Simon Winchester, author of several books I liked.So, I dropped Simon an e-mail with this suggestion. I mean, his website asks for suggestions!Nothing happened for about 3 months, but then I got a reply, saying he thought it was a good idea, but he had to convince his agent. More months passed, and another note arrived in my in-box from Simon, saying the agent though it was a good idea. But now came the tough part, convincing at his publisher.Months later, a third e-mail from Simon. The editor said yes!Simon was already working on some other books he had already contracted for. So while Simon was finishing them, I started to do research. I knew bits and pieces of stories, and I found others. So, when I had collected a bunch of these together, I sent Simon another e-mail. In total, I sent him six e-mails with precision stories, notes, ideas on people to discuss, and assorted information, some as long as 30 pages. I also included my thoughts on how it was important to show how precision had changed over time, and how precision changed the world. For, literally without precision, the world as we know it today would not exist. Don't believe me, read the book.And then I waited and waited. I got occasional e-mails from Simon, and even a couple of phone calls, but it was taking way longer than I thought it would.Notice that at this point, I have not met Simon. Just e-mails and an occasional phone call.Finally, one day in February 2018, a package arrives in the mail from Simon, and it's preliminary copy , what he called an advanced reader copy, of the book! And it's entitled The Perfectionists.I was amazed, especially for the story he included about my father, that deals with precision, which Simon included on pages 7-10 of the book.I saw that Simon had taken some of my little suggestions to heart, especially the need to define precision and accuracy, and how, while they are related, they are not the same thing.Simon had asked that I read the book, and send in comments and corrections. I blasted through it in just 3 days, I was so amazed at the book, how he had taken it so much further than I ever could have.Then, the book gets published in early May, 2018.By this point, I am bound and determined to meet Simon. And he is going on a book tour, but sadly, my state of Florida is not on the list. But I see that it starts in DC, my old home town, so I make plans and fly to DC, and spend a long weekend catching up with friends I have known, some of them over 50 years!And then it happens. At a small bookstore in DC, down near the Potomac River, Simon shows up to give his presentation and answer questions on precision. And we finally get a chance to meet.But sadly, it is for only an hour, as he is moving on to Philadelphia to do it all over again the next day, and on and on for about 3 long weeks. Talking to radio shows in the mornings, visiting bookstores in the afternoon and evening, then moving on and doing it all over again. PS Most Authors hate book tours.So, enough already, what about the book?It's marvelous. It traces precision, from it's rocky beginnings in England with steam engines, in France, with gun makers, and then back to England, to Portsmouth, where the Royal Navy, had a real problems with acquiring enough blocks, rope blocks, used in hauling goods, and sails, and other essentials around on shore and at sea, and to solve that problem, the answer that one man, Henry Maudslay came up around 1800, did the trick. And the answer Maudslay came up with was so good, the machines were in use for 160 years, finally making their last blocks in 1965.The tale then travels to the US, where …... I can't go on, Simon would probably shoot me if I told you more, as it would spoil the book.So, buy the book, it's marvelous. If you like technical machines of any kind, buy. If you use precision machines, of any kind, buy it. If you just like great story telling, buy this book. You will love it.But one more thing. I claim that precision is all around us, everyday, but we just don't see it.A good example is probably within 5 feet of you right now. A ballpoint pen.What is precise about them, you ask? I mean, perfectly good ballpoint pens can be had for a quarter. What can be precise about them?Well, the fit of the ball to the case or cone has to be very precise, more so than you would think. If the fit is too tight, the ball will jam, and no ink will flow. And if too loose, the ink comes out in blobs, also not acceptable.But what is truly amazing about ball point pens is that the ball cannot be smooth. It has to be precisely made, to roll smoothly, but if is is too smooth, it will not carry ink onto the ball, so it has to be not too small, nor to large, and the surface has to be rough-ish, to carry ink.Bic, hte largest maker of ballpoint pens in the world, with their Crystal pen (we've all used one, their clear pen), spends 60-70 HOURS grinding each ball. Obviously, they do it in batches, not individually, but as we have seen. the fit must be very, very precise to work properly.And when I mean all around us, Bic, in 7 factories around the world, makes 1 MILLION Crystal pens a day.That, my friends, is true precision. And it is all around us, and we take it for granted.Simon ends the main part of the book talking about the most precise machines ever made, the LIGO machines, designed to test Einstein's theory of General Relativity. There are two of these machines in the USA, with a third to be built and operated in India. How precise are they? Well, let's just say that they need to do math that involves more than 30 decimal places. Precise enough for you?Buy the book, you will love it.PS Outside North America, the book is entitled: Exactly.

This is a great book. Simon Winchester has a wonderful writing style and is a skillful storyteller. His story is an important one due to the importance of precision instruments in our society. That said, there are a fair numbers of small errors and one more major one in the book.He states that, “Jefferson, while U.S. minister to France…told his superiors in Washington”. Jefferson was minister in France from 1785 to 1789. The act creating a capital district along the Potomac River was signed in July 1790. There was no Washington, D.C. when Jefferson was minister in France.There are lots of small problems in chapter 8 which discusses GPS. I’m the coauthor of "GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones" which is included in his bibliography. https://www.amazon.com/GPS-Declassified-Smart-Bombs-Smartphones/dp/1612344089He states that Roger Easton, my dad, came up with the idea of using clocks in satellites for a passive ranging navigation system in 1973. In reality, the idea came from a conversation with Dr. Arnold Shostak, father of SETI researcher Seth Shostak, in 1964. He states, “Roger Easton, who at the time worked for the U.S. Navy’s then –named Space Applications Branch in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.” Dad worked his whole Naval Research Lab career at its main office in Washington, D.C. The South Texas fence was a separate radar fence that was intended to be an adjunct to the primary Space fence so that an object’s orbit could be calculated on a single penetration of the two fences. Dad was there in September 1964 trying to synchronize the clocks in the two stations in this fence. He realized that a clock in a satellite could do this and later saw that it could also be used for navigation (following up on his April 1964 conversation with Dr. Shostak referenced above).Winchester then describes the car experiment which showed that passive ranging with clocks would work except he places it in Texas whereas it was in D.C. “The other he kept at the naval station in which he was working in South Texas. While the observers were watching the oscilloscope screens he had hooked up in the lab, he ordered Maloof to drive the car as far and fast as possible down a road, Texas Route 295, which was unfinished at the time and thus empty.”He’s describing the experiment which occurred on October 16, 1964. See page 9 from the “NRL GPS Bibliography - An Annotated Bibliography of the Origin and Development of the Global Position System at the Naval Research Laboratory” which states, “Easton’s passive ranging concept is demonstrated using a side-tone ranging receiver, modified from the South Texas experiment and placed at NRL, and a transmitter in Matt Maloof’s convertible as he drives it down the I-295 interstate. The road is finished but not yet opened to the public. Two Bureau of Naval Weapons representatives, John Yob and Chester Kleczek, observe the experiment."I-295 is the highway next to NRL’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. It’s not a state road in Texas. There is a reference to a South Texas experiment in the above account, but the test with Maloof’s convertible was in the D.C. area. In a 1996 interview with my Dad, they refer to the Wilson bridge across the Potomac in relation to the experiment. Wikipedia states that, “The first 7.8 miles (12.6 km) of the route opened on August 7, 1964 when the connecting segment of the Capital Beltway opened.” This fits in with an October 16th test.The most significant error is his assertion that Reagan opened GPS to civilian uses after the shooting down of KAL 007 in 1983. This mistake is common in the literature. However, GPS was a dual use military-civilian system from day 1. The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System Program Management Plan 15 July 1974 can be found under resources on my website (gpsdeclassified). On page 2-9, it states that, “The C/A Signal will serve as an aid to the acquisition of the P Signal, and will also provide a navigation signal in the clear to both the military and civil user.” Texas Instruments was making in 1981 the TI-4100 NAVSTAR Navigator GPS Receiver for commercial users. Thus, civilian use was built into GPS in 1974 and a civilian receiver was being sold in 1981. I highly recommend this book in spite of these minor errors.

I bought this thinking it would be a bit of a technological “treat”, but although it certainly has some interesting content it turned out to be something of a disappointing read. Maybe I was expecting too much – he is after all a journalist, not an engineer or scientist – but while some descriptions and explanations of technological concepts and advances were OK, others were too “soft-focus” to be satisfying. So, a book all about precision which suffers from a certain lack of precision, at least in some areas.Examples? At a time when an engineering tolerance of 1/10” was state-of-the-art, someone devises a micrometer that can measure to 1/10,000” (or maybe 1/100,000”). How was this quantum leap in precision achieved? No clear explanation. A major innovation in lathe design is so vaguely described I had to watch YouTube videos to understand the principle. Gauge blocks are lovingly described more than once, but how were they produced with such accuracy back then, and why were they a more useful or accurate guide to measuring a component than a gauge capable of measuring to a millionth of an inch? No idea. The fault in the Hubble Space Telescope mirror was due either to a misaligned laser measurement resulting in a 1.3mm error or (2 pages earlier) to a 12” metal rod actually being 13” long and nobody noticed. Or was it both? I couldn’t really tell. And when it comes to aircraft jet engine components and their location and functions, I’m afraid he is really out of his depth. Oh, and if individual mechanical components are manufactured with greater accuracy, you have to allow GREATER tolerances? I don't think so.To be fair I found other areas where he was much better informed, but by then I was treating everything with caution.As other reviewers have commented, the style can be verbose and too self-consciously “literary”. Too many simple statements have their start and end separated by 4 or 5 lines of convoluted, elliptical sub-comments. All grammatically impeccable, of course, but clarity would have been better served with two or three separate sentences.As interesting read, but something of a let-down, and I’m afraid I developed the unkind suspicion that his greatest skill might just be the knack of convincing editors (and some reviewers) that his erudite writing style implies deep subject knowledge.

Good review by G M Ogg, apart from awarding 3 stars!I first read about 'Exactly: How Precision Engineers created the Modern World' in Simon Kuper's review in The Spectator June 2018. Because the subject matter of the book seemed so interesting to me I didn't heed the warnings in that review - I've reread it now after wading through the book -" Machines shape human history. But they get little attention, in part because few writers understand them. Winchester, a veteran craftsman of readable non-fiction, has written a flawed book about a crucial subject: the birth, rise and possible end of precision technology."" Given the author’s journalistic flair, Exactly is a disappointing book. In part, the problem is capturing machine processes in words. Winchester’s sub-Dickensian attempts rarely succeed. The other problem is imprecise prose: he rarely uses one word where four will do. "Exactly was mentioned on BBC Inside Science, reporting that it was on the Royal Society's Science Book short list. I thought - 'It must be an excellent book' - Wrong. Narrative style is verbose and meandering. Like G M Ogg I really wanted to understand how improvements in precision are brought about. No answers from this book. I started to wonder if the author really has any understanding of what he is writing about.----------Misunderstandings by the author.Towards the end, after discussing atomic clocks, we are invited to use a simple pendulum to determine the second. Why? The formula quoted is incorrect (could be a typesetter's error). No mention that the simple pendulum is an ideal.The real clincher, quote from Exactly: "The test masses on the LIGO devices in Washington State andLouisiana are so exact in their making that the light reflected bythem can be measured to one ten-thousandth of the diameter of aproton. They can also compute with great precision the distance be-tween this planet and our neighbor star Alpha Centauri A, whichlies 4.3 light-years away.The distance in miles of 4.3 light-years is 26 trillion miles, or,in full, 26,000,000,000,000 miles. It is now known with absolutecertainty that the cylindrical masses on LIGO can help to measurethat vast distance to within the width of a single human hair.And that's precision."Please feel free to correct me, but I don't think LIGO measures the distance to the stars.How this book got on the 'Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize - Shortlist 2018' is beyond me.

I do have a Mech Eng background and I so wanted to love this book. It started off fascinatingly but the further into it you get the more it meanders. We read at length about the writers passion for cameras, Japanese culture , the history of and personalities behind Rolls Royce, travels in a RR Camargue , and while its peppered with very interesting recounts, it was a disappointment in the end.

Inadequate Graphical Explanation. I enjoyed this book, and even though I am an engineer, and therefore familiar with some of the technologies that the author describes, the author shows his love of a word processor, and clearly is not in the "a picture is worth a thousand words" camp. The book's main body is 355 pages, which includes 48 very poorly rendered, and generally small monochrome pictures. 13 are of people, 35 are of items, and there is little graphical explanation. If the author and publisher had not been so lazy in the graphics department, I would have given the book 5 stars. It saddens me when an author puts so much research into a topic, but then believes that words suffice.

Obviously written by somebody who does not really understand what he is writing about. There are a number of glaring mistakes. He refers to the "frizzle" of a musket on a number of occasions rather than the "frizzen". While Henry Maudsley gets a mention, he does not credit him with his most outstanding invention -the interchangeable geared leadscrew of the engineers lathe. I didn't bother to finish the book.The book jacket has glowing praise for the author from a number of publications, they obviously have not read this one.