The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World (Book Review)

[Janger]

Lucky you. I've heard of this place. Always wanted to go. Looks so interesting to me

In the late 1970s there was a BBC series called Connections, hosted by science historian James Burke. He makes the point that inventions aren't linear, but rather depended on the need, desires, and even coincidence to advance society. He also says you can't predict where technology will go—because you can't know its impact without knowing these connections. I was quite young, but remember it vividly because he started with the plow and somehow showed how it made possible everything that came after it. His personality made it interesting. Today you get historians (again British) like Suzannah Lipscomb and Kate Williams who have become rockstars, partly because they use the same technique of tying together inventions and culture to make history fascinating. (The other reason they are rockstars becomes clear if you Goggle them).

Good museums to me tell a story, rather than just display stuff with a one paragraph description. A time line is one way to do this effectively. But I've always wanted to see a museum of "stuff that didn't work" where they walk you through the reasons for failure and then show the final, successful, invention. Perhaps no one else would be interested in seeing versions of WD-1 through 39, but I think it would be interesting...Preparation A through G, perhaps not so much

I was wondering when Connections would come up. You can watch Connections again on you tube if you like. It was a good series. Unfortunately the sound and video are as good as it was in the seventies. There is a book from the show which I re-read recently. It's good too.

Now Peter I want to go see the science museum in London again. I was there as a kid I think we were in there for 2 or 3 days. It's world class museum. When will it be safe to get on an air plane again?

 

[YYCHM]

I was wondering when Connections would come up. You can watch Connections again on you tube if you like. It was a good series. Unfortunately the sound and video are as good as it was in the seventies. There is a book from the show which I re-read recently. It's good too.

Now Peter I want to go see the science museum in London again. I was there as a kid I think we were in there for 2 or 3 days. It's world class museum. When will it be safe to get on an air plane again?

I'm sure I was there as well, but being 10 or 11 years of age at the time the British War Museum was a bigger draw for me.

I want to see that museum/collection just west of Calgary that's so hard to get into.

 

[DavidR8]

I'm sure I was there as well, but being 10 or 11 years of age at the time the British War Museum was a bigger draw for me.

I want to see that museum/collection just west of Calgary that's so hard to get into.

What museum is that?


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[YYCHM]

What museum is that?


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https://museumofmaking.org/

 

[CalgaryPT]

Now Peter I want to go see the science museum in London again. I was there as a kid I think we were in there for 2 or 3 days. It's world class museum. When will it be safe to get on an air plane again?

Perhaps instead we'll be renting drones parked in the lobby of the museum. We'll connect to them virtually through our laptops, pilot them down the isles of the museum while watching on our laptops overseas. We'll be able to navigate drones instead of shopping carts in our local grocery store, point a laser at an item on the shelf, and have it delivered to our house, Convid-free. James Burke should have predicted this (with better sound quality of course).

I just depressed myself John. Nothing beats a real museum.

 

[Tozguy]

I'm 100 pages into the book 'The Perfectionists'. The content is fascinating. It brings new perspective to my experience in the textile industry and to the evolution of precision in the machinery we used.
It is well that the content is so interesting because the writing style is very heavy. One sentences can go on for half a page with 8-10 commas and one or more parenthesis. Several times I had to go back over a sentence to clear up the idea it was conveying. Several times I wondered if it was worth continuing the effort it takes to read it.

 

[DavidR8]

I'm 100 pages into the book 'The Perfectionists'. The content is fascinating. It brings new perspective to my experience in the textile industry and to the evolution of precision in the machinery we used.
It is well that the content is so interesting because the writing style is very heavy. One sentences can go on for half a page with 8-10 commas and one or more parenthesis. Several times I had to go back over a sentence to clear up the idea it was conveying. Several times I wondered if it was worth continuing the effort it takes to read it.

It is a bit tedious but it's like a tourism brochure compared to The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

 

[Janger]

I'm reading it too. Now I need to go to England to see those H1 H2 H3 H4 clocks.

 

[PeterT]

The Audibles version is narrated by the author, who I thought did an excellent job. Crisp 'England' English. You'd never know there was a comma in there LOL. Often times with Audibles the opposite holds - good text but bad or distracting narration. Its a bit of crap shoot so narrator ratings its something you look at if you are sitting on the fence to buy or not. But its ind of like music, one persons taste may not agree with another. Also Audibles is kind of sucky if they keep referencing an accompaning PDF or you need to refer to diagrams or picture to understand the narration. Both book formats have their pros & cons. I'm usually brain dead after work so reading a book later in the evening is usually a recipe for falling asleep. I walk to work to so that provides an hour of 'listening' time every day which equates to quite a few books over time.

Are there many pics in the actual book?

 

[CalgaryPT]

Several times I had to go back over a sentence to clear up the idea it was conveying. Several times I wondered if it was worth continuing the effort it takes to read it.

I find since the demise of small bookstores, the emergence of Amazon ordering, and now the advent of eReaders and Audible, I get more duds than I used to. I attribute it to the inability to page through a physical book before you buy. In a relaxed bookstore you used to read a few lines, skip a hundred pages and read a few more lines, then skip a hundred pages and read a few more lines. Do this four or five times and you get a reasonable feel for the author's writing style. Certainly your assessment is many times better than a one time sample of some pages at the beginning of the eBook, or the sample page they show you on Amazon. If an author's writing style doesn't work for you, you don't buy it. If you do and you still don't like it, at least there is no surprise.

For me, book reviews are like models: they are always wrong, but some are useful.

 

[CalgaryPT]

The Audibles version is narrated by the author, who I thought did an excellent job...

I keep signing up for Audible, then cancelling my subscription. I've had some good ones, but some really bad ones as well. If I spent long periods of time in my car I'd use it all the time. I'm sure I will try it again soon, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth from a previous download. I also find you need the right level of complexity to the book depending on the task you are doing. For some it can easily run in the background as you work at a repetitive task (like painting) in the shop. But for other stuff it is too distracting. For a truck driver or a road trip I'm a fan—depending on the narrator as you point out Peter.

 

[YYCHM]

Are there many pics in the actual book?

49

 

[PeterT]

Audibles also gotten quite spendy over time. It started out reasonable than equivalent hard copy, about half price as I recall. I stack 'candidates' in my wish list, then inevitably they would come on 2-for-1 sale so you could milk the annual cost even more or use the opportunity to gamble on something iffy. The only thing worse than a dud audible is a dud hardcopy LoL. I still have the original dot com subscription, I was lead to believe dot ca didn't have the same or as many titles? My wife was going to try Audibles but the math only works if you read so much per year. I don't do apple shopping much but I hear you can get titles that way too onsey-twosey with no subscription. Audibles lets you carry over credits after renewal time. But I think the new game is try to augment it with 'free' stuff through the library or other sources. Kind of depends on what you like to read & when published. Its not for everyone but I find it useful. When it comes to picture laden or technical content, a real book wins hands down no contest.

 

[kevin.decelles]

I am a fan of audible — early adopter from before amazon . I still buy my favourite books in hard cover if possible

Based on the feedback I found the hard cover for 11 bucks from “bool outlet “. Just got to wait for it now...... can’t wait




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[Tom O]

I still prefer books although audible has its uses.

 

[Dabbler]

I listen to audiobooks while in the shop, and relaxing before bed. For everything else it's paper, baby!

 

[YYCHM]

Thanks for recommending this book! It was a great read.

So, if every physical measurement we can make relates back to time!!! What the H is time?

 

[CalgaryPT]

Thanks for recommending this book! It was a great read.

So, if every physical measurement we can make relates back to time!!! What the H is time?

Glad you enjoyed it.
I’ve read more that one book that says time is nothing more than a human construct, that it really doesn’t exist. I have two rotator cuffs and a pair of eyes that disagree.

 

[Tom O]

Thanks for recommending this book! It was a great read.

So, if every physical measurement we can make relates back to time!!! What the H is time?

It’s a point of reference for feeling old.

 

[Janger]

Time is the thing clocks measure. -Einstein..