Book Read Free

The Perfectionists

Page 39

by Simon Winchester


  Whitworth, 108, 109

  Robbins and Lawrence Co., 94n

  robots, 166

  Rolls, Charles, 135, 140–41, 142

  automotive mishap of, 144–45

  on reasons for Rolls-Royce’s success, 154–55

  Royce’s first meeting with, 143–44

  Rolls-Royce jet engines, 196–213, 205

  Advanced Blade Casting Facility for, 207

  Avon, 196n, 199

  Blade Cooling Research Group for, 199, 201

  Comet, 196n, 198, 200

  Quantas Flight 32 and, 174–78, 178, 196, 207–12, 208, 229

  RB211, 203n

  Trent 900-series, 174–78, 178, 205, 212

  Trent XWB, 206

  Rolls-Royce Motors, 6, 129–55

  aircraft engine manufacture begun by, 196n

  author’s own experiences with vehicles, 129–30, 131–35

  Camargue, 134–35

  clandestine repair procedures for, 132

  Decauville as basis for early models, 138–39, 145–46, 158

  demise of, 130, 134–35

  English lexicon and, 155

  founding of, 131, 143

  name of company, 135, 143, 155

  precision’s role at Ford vs., 131, 166–67

  promoted as motoring world’s finest example of precision engineering, 130

  Royce Ten, Twenty, and Thirty models, 138–43, 144–45

  Silver Ghost, see Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost

  Silver Seraph, 129–30

  Silver Spirit, 133–34

  see also Royce, Henry

  Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, 146–55, 147

  American factory and buyers of, 152

  demonstration car’s tests and long-distance expedition, 148–52

  indestructibly well made, 151–52

  manufacturing process for, 152–54, 166

  originally called Rolls-Royce 40/50, 147–48

  penny and glassware stunts performed on, 150

  produced at rate of two cars a day, 154–55

  quiet engine of, 150

  Royal Air Force (RAF), 196n

  Whittle in employ of, 182, 183–84, 192

  Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC), 8–11

  Royal Automobile Club (RAC), 148n, 149, 150, 151, 152

  Royal Navy, 59, 66–73

  cannon making for, 39, 41–44

  Harrison’s early sea clock trials and, 34, 35–36, 39

  pulley blocks built for, 65–66, 67–71

  sailing vessels of, 66–67

  Royal Society of Arts (RSA), 55–56, 112, 113n, 195

  Royce, Henry, 131, 135–55, 137, 276

  as apprentice in Great Northern Railway workshop, 135–36

  birth and early years of, 135

  crane market and, 136–37

  electrical devices manufactured and sold by, 136

  Ford compared to, 131, 155–56, 158–59, 165–66

  French cars as starting point for, 137–39, 145–46, 158

  Rolls’s overtures to, 140–41, 142, 143

  Royce Ten engineering and, 138–43

  see also Rolls-Royce Motors

  Royce Limited, 136–37

  Russell, Bertrand, 343

  samurai swords, 308

  satellites, 293, 350

  GPS and, 37, 267, 268–69, 270–72, 274

  intelligence-gathering, 236–37, 271, 345n

  “space fence” for detection of, 266

  Sputnik, 259–61, 262, 285

  U.S. Navy Transit navigation system and, 262–64, 263

  see also Hubble Space Telescope

  Sayer, Gerry, 191, 192–94

  Sayers, Dorothy L., Gaudy Night, 255

  Schriever Air Force Base (Colo.), GPS run from, 270–72, 271, 353

  science fiction, 181

  Science Museum (London), 60, 78

  Scott, Walter, 58

  screw making, 63–64

  screws, standardized, 120, 121, 123

  sea watches, made by Harrison (H4 and K1), 31–32, 34–36

  second, defining, 334, 349–50, 352

  Sedgwick, John, 124

  Seiko, 308, 309, 310–22, 316, 351

  all components also made by, 312, 319

  building of, in Ginza district of Tokyo, 312, 313, 313

  first quartz watch made by (Astron), 314, 315–16, 318

  Grand Seiko mechanical watch, 318–19, 319

  name of, 311–12, 313

  principal factory of, in Morioka, 309, 310, 316–22, 319

  reverence for watchmaker’s craft at, 316, 319–22

  Selden (litigant in patent case against Ford), 159–60

  semiconductors, 281, 282, 283, 288

  see also integrated circuitry; microprocessor chips; transistors

  Setright, L. J. K., Drive On!, 129

  sewing machines, 102, 105, 161n

  sextants, 37, 38, 259n

  Shaw, Bernard, 58

  Sheldon, John, 56n

  shilling coin, 22, 51

  shipping industry, timekeeping and, 29–37

  ships:

  powered by turbines, 186

  see also navigation

  Shockley, William, 281–82, 282, 283–84, 287

  Shockley Transistors, 283–84

  shoe, as thing of low tolerance, 18–19

  shoe last lathe, Blanchard’s design for, 19n, 101

  Shovell, Sir Cloudesley, 31

  shrapnel, invention of, 87n

  Shrapnel, Sir Henry, 87n

  silica, LIGO test mass made of, 305, 305–6

  Silicon Valley, 283

  silicon wafers, for microprocessor chips, 283, 292–93, 298

  Singapore Airlines, 211

  Singer, Isaac, 102

  SKF, 33, 170

  Skylake chips, 291, 297–98

  slide rest, invention of, 62–63, 64–65

  smartphones, 228, 276

  Smith, James, Panorama of Science and Art, 75

  Smith and Wesson, 102

  Soviet Union:

  global navigation system of (GLONASS), 270

  Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down by, 269

  “space fence,” 266

  spectacles, 221–23

  bifocal lenses in, 222–23

  speed of light, 298

  GPS and, 265, 266, 267, 272

  kilogram defined in terms of, 348

  spherical aberration, 224, 235

  in Hubble’s main mirror, 233, 235, 240–43, 241

  reduced by aspherical lens, 220, 228

  Spitzer Space Telescope, 232n

  Spottsylvania, Battle of (1864), 124

  Springfield, Mass., Rolls-Royce factory in, 152

  Springfield Armory (Mass.), 84, 98, 98, 101, 102, 161n

  Sputnik, 259–61, 262, 285

  plotting location from radio signals of, 260–61

  standardization, 86

  French weaponry and, 86–93

  see also interchangeable parts

  start-ups, invention of term, 284n

  steam, figurative use of word, 74n

  steam engines, 39, 44–52, 304

  Boulton and Watt, 46, 48, 71

  first factory run entirely from output of, 71–72

  invention of precision and, 22, 51–52

  leaking of steam from, 48–49

  Newcomen’s “fire-engine,” 44–45, 46

  principle of, 44

  Watt’s improvements to design of, 45–47

  Watt’s passion for exactitude and, 47–48

  Watt’s patent for, 46, 47

  Wilkinson’s cylinder-boring technique applied to, 39, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49–52, 304, 306

  steam-powered machines, in Crystal Palace exhibition, 116, 117–18

  steel, Whitworth, 124

  Summilux lenses, 220, 224–25, 227, 228

  supersonic passenger planes, 195

  surveying:

  GPS used in, 270

  Great Trigonometric Survey of India, 273n

 
Switzerland, watch making in, 315, 316

  Talleyrand, Prince of, 333–34, 348

  target, shooting with precision vs. accuracy, 14–16, 15

  taxation of vehicles, 147–48

  telescopes, 222

  James Webb Space Telescope, 231n, 294, 295, 299

  see also Hubble Space Telescope

  temperature:

  bimetallic strips and changes in, 33–34

  kelvin as unit of, 346

  Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 107

  Terror, 92, 335, 336

  Tesla, Nikola, 347n

  tetsubin (hammered-iron teakettle), 309–10

  Texas Instruments, 288

  textile industry, mechanization of, 74

  Thorne, Kip, 303–4

  three surfaces, grinding and planing to flatness, 75–76

  threshing engines, Westinghouse, 156–58

  time, 28, 347–55

  decimal, 349n

  ephemeris, 350

  human constructs for, 28, 348–50; see also specific units of time

  length of pendulum and, 332–33, 349

  link between gravity and, 354–55

  local, determining from sun and stars, 30n

  longitude meridians as markers of, 30n

  postrevolutionary Republican Calendar and, 333–34

  units of measurement defined in terms of, 347–48

  timekeepers, 28–37

  Ancient Greek predecessor of (Antikythera mechanism), 24–27, 36

  in monasteries, 28–29

  Nature’s offerings of dawn, midday, and dusk and, 28

  navigation across oceans and, 29–37

  railways and, 29, 313–14

  see also clocks; watches

  Times (London), 194

  Timken, 33

  Tizard, Henry, 185n, 189

  tolerances, 16–19

  automation necessitated by shrinkage of, to none whatsover, 206–7

  of camera and lens makers, 227–28

  first formal definition of, 18n

  gauge blocks and, 171

  of gun makers, 89, 100

  and inherently imprecise nature of wood, 17

  low, of shoes, 18–19

  of manufactured metal, glass, or ceramic, 17–18

  of Maudsley’s bench micrometer, 78

  for microprocessor chips, 278, 280

  quantum mechanics and, 212–13

  of screws made with Maudsley and Bramah’s slide rest, 64

  for smartphones, 228

  to which Wilkinson ground out his first cylinder, 51–52

  Whitworth’s measuring device and, 122

  traceability, 104n

  Trailblazer, oil rig location system used by, 255–59, 262

  transistor radios, 282

  transistors, 278, 279, 280

  first working device, 281–82, 283

  integrated circuitry and, 286–91

  Lilienfeld’s concept for, 281

  mesa, 285, 288n

  miniaturization of, 282–83, 284–85, 287–91, 294–98

  Moore’s law and, 279–80, 289, 290–91, 292, 295–96, 297

  planar, invention of, 283, 284–85, 286n, 287, 288n

  reliability issues and, 285

  silicon oxide coating on, 285, 286

  silicon wafer–based, introduction of, 283

  term coined for, 282

  see also microprocessor chips

  Transit navigation system, 262–63, 263

  Treaty of the Metre (1875), 338

  Truman, Harry, 281

  Tuillaume, Maxime, 179

  turbine engines:

  for aircraft, see jet engines

  before jet propulsion, 186

  typewriters, 161n

  United Technologies, 237n

  universe, expansion of, 231

  Ur-Leica, 220, 221, 227

  urushi (Japanese handmade lacquerware), 326–28, 327

  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, D.C.), 260

  Vaucanson, Jacques de, 65

  Verne, Jules, 181

  Vernier, Pierre, 120–21

  Vickers Viscount, 198, 200

  Victoria, Queen, 107–11

  opening shot in 1860 Grand Rifle Match fired by, 107–10, 118

  Vivian Grey (Disraeli), 74n

  Voigtländer, 219

  Volkswagen, 130, 135

  volume, standard unit of, 333, 336–37

  wabi-sabi, 314

  Wagner, Herbert, 184

  War of 1812, shortcomings of U.S. Army’s muskets in, 81–85, 86–87

  washing machines, 105

  watches:

  quartz, 314–16, 316, 351

  railways and, 29, 313–14

  sea, made by Harrison (H4 and K1), 31–32, 34–36

  Seiko and, 311–13

  wristwatches, 290, 308

  Watt, James, 45–52, 111, 117

  Newcomen’s engine design improved by, 45–47, 46

  patent awarded to, 46, 47

  personality and demeanor of, 47–48

  Wilkinson’s cylinder-boring technique applied to steam engine of, 39, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49–52, 304, 306

  weaponry:

  handmade, physical shortcomings of, 84

  with inbuilt GPS systems, 269

  nuclear strategic arsenal, 262, 264, 269

  Whitworth’s designs for, 123–24

  see also cannon making; guns; muskets, flintlock

  week, defining, 333–34, 349

  Weiffenbach, George, 259–62

  Weiler, Edward, 234–35, 251

  Wellington, Duke, 58

  Wells, H. G., 181

  Westinghouse threshing engines, 156–58

  Whitney, Eli:

  cotton gin introduced by, 94, 96

  muskets made for U.S. government by, 94–97, 98

  Whittle, Frank, 173, 178, 179, 180–96

  financial backing for, 184–85, 189

  first flight of experimental aircraft fitted with his jet engine, 190, 191–94

  future aircraft envisioned by, 181–82

  honors bestowed on, 194–95

  jet engine designed by, 180, 182–87, 191, 200

  jet engine tested by, 187–90

  patent granted to, 183–84

  in postwar years, 194–96

  as student at Cranwell (Royal Air Force academy), 180–82

  Whittle, Ian, 195–96

  Whitworth, Joseph, 108, 109, 110–11, 112, 118–25

  on American engineering and labor market, 122–23

  apprenticed to Maudslay, 119–20

  armaments produced by, 123–24

  billiard table designed by, 124–25

  flatness of surface plates and, 119–20

  measuring machine created by, 118–19, 120–23

  physical appearance and demeanor of, 118

  rifle made by, used in American Civil War, 123–24

  screw-measuring notation and (BSW), 123

  standardized screws invented by, 120, 121, 123

  steel alloy produced by, 124

  Victoria’s firing of rifle made by, 107–10, 118, 123

  Whitworth Scholarship, Cambridge University, 185n

  Whyte, Lancelot Law, 173, 184–85

  wide-angle lenses, 220, 226, 228

  Wilkins, John, 332–33, 348

  Wilkinson, Isaac, 40

  Wilkinson, John, 23, 38–44, 40, 45, 55, 122, 304–6

  cannon making improved by, 41–44, 87

  cylinder-boring technique of, applied to steam engines, 39, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49–52, 304, 306

  Gainsborough’s portraits of, 38–39

  iron smelting and forging and, 40–41, 43, 49

  obsessed with iron, 23, 47

  patent awarded to, 43, 47, 87

  personality and demeanor of, 47

  Williams, Tennessee, The Glass Menagerie, 255

  Wimperis, Harry, 185n

  Winchester, 102

  Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 345

  W1X engine, 190 />
  wood, as inherently imprecise material, 17

  Woolwich Royal Arsenal (East London), 59

  Works (Hall), 331

  World War II, 184, 190

  wringing apart metal tiles, 3

  wristwatches, 290, 308

  WU (Whittle Unit), 185

  Yale, Linus, 127

  year, defining, 349, 350

  ytterbium clock, 353

  A Note on the Type

  The typeface mostly employed in this book is a modern interpretation of the classic eighteenth-century Didone serif face Bodoni, and known as Filosofia. This was created in 1996 by the Bratislava-born type designer Zuzana Licko, who, with her Dutch-born husband, Rudy Vanderlans, delighted the typographic world during the closing decades of the twentieth century with a whirlwind of type design, largely occasioned by the invention of the Macintosh computer in 1984. Filosofia, with its slightly bulging serifs and lighter-than-classical-Bodoni vertical lines, and easily recognizable with its below-the-baseline numbers 3,4,5,7, and 9, clearly owes much to one of the most beloved of all Italian faces, but is more amiable and less wearing to the eyes when ranged over texts as lengthy and complex as that of The Perfectionists. I am proud that this book’s designer felt once again able to employ this wonderful typeface, and applaud with gratitude its most gifted creator.

  SW

  About the Author

  SIMON WINCHESTER is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, Atlantic, Pacific, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best-of and notable lists. In 2006, Mr. Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He lives in western Massachusetts.

  www.simonwinchester.com

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  Also by Simon Winchester

  Pacific

  In Holy Terror

  American Heartbeat

  Their Noble Lordships

  Stones of Empire (photographer)

  Outposts

  Prison Diary, Argentina

  Hong Kong: Here Be Dragons

  Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles

  Pacific Rising

  Small World

  Pacific Nightmare

  The River at the Center of the World

  The Professor and the Madman

  The Fracture Zone

  The Map That Changed the World

  Krakatoa

  The Meaning of Everything

  A Crack in the Edge of the World

  The Man Who Loved China

  West Coast: Bering to Baja

  East Coast: Arctic to Tropic

  Skulls

  Atlantic

  The Alice Behind Wonderland

  The Men Who United the States

  When the Earth Shakes

  When the Sky Breaks

  Oxford

 

‹ Prev