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Index
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(Page references in italics refer to illustrations.)
accuracy:
not of supreme importance in clocks, 104–5
precision vs., 13–16, 15
Rolls-Royce Camargue and, 134–35
Adams, John, 90, 95
Admiralty, British:
Harrison’s sea watch and, 35
naval artillery and, 42
>
pulley block supply and, 68, 70, 72–73
agriculture, 102, 273
Westinghouse threshing engine and, 156–58
Whitney’s cotton gin and, 94, 96
Airbus A380 double-decker superjumbo jet, 205, 207
see also Quantas Flight 32
aircraft, 173–214
access to GPS and, 269–70
passenger and freight, in Jet Age, 198–99
with propeller-driving piston engines, 178, 180, 181–82, 189, 198
shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, 269
see also jet engines; Quantas Flight 32
Air Force, British, see Royal Air Force (RAF)
Air Force, U.S., 85
GPS controlled by, 268, 269
Parkinson’s clock-based navigation system and, 267–68
Second Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS), 271–72, 272
Air Ministry, British, Whittle’s design for jet engine and, 183, 185, 189–90
Albert, Prince, 109, 110–11, 112–13
almanacs, 350
American Journal of Science, 343
Amoco Petroleum, 256
Ångstrom, 344, 345
Antikythera mechanism, 24–27, 36
Antonioni, Michelangelo, 215
Apple Computer, 284n
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 23
ASML (originally called Advanced Semiconductor Materials International), 291–97
cleanliness standards and, 293–94
extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation and, 296–97
founding of, 291–92
machines for making microprocessor chips made by, 275–76, 277, 277–78, 291–97, 304
mutual dependency of Intel and, 278
aspherical lenses, 220, 228
assembly line, 114
at Ford, 160–67
little skill needed by workers on, 165
pork butchery as inspiration for, 163–64
astrolabe, 37, 38
astronomy, 221
in ancient world, 26
Antikythera mechanism and, 24–27
Gascoigne’s measuring instrument for, 77
Herschel family’s achievements in, 229–30n
medieval clocks and, 28
see also Hubble Space Telescope
atomic bomb, 281
atomic clocks, 104, 266, 271–72, 313, 351–53
master clocks, 104, 352–53
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 264n
atoms, measurement system using wavelength of light and, 342–45
Augustine, Saint, 348
Autocar, 148, 150
“automated battlefield” idea, 267n
automation, necessitated by shrinkage of tolerances to none whatsoever, 206–7
automobiles, 129–71
crankshafts of, 6
made in France, 137–39
vehicle taxation and, 147–48
see also Ford Motor Company; Rolls-Royce Motors
axles, assembled on a line, 165
Babylonians, 26, 331
Bacquancourt, M. de, 70
Ball Aerospace, 250
Bally computer-augmented pinball machines, 289
bamboo, Japanese handcrafted objects made of, 325, 326, 328
banknotes, printing sequential numbers on, 58
Bardeen, John, 281–82, 282
Barnack, Oskar, 220, 221, 227
bearings, 33
for jet engines, 187
beaver pelts, trade in, 94n
beer engines, 58
Beidou, 270
Bélidor, Bernard Forest de, 87n
Bell Labs, 281–82, 283, 287
Bentham, Jeremy, 68n
Bentham, Sir Samuel, 68
Bersham foundry (Wales), Wilkinson’s cylinder-boring machine at, 41, 42–44, 49–51, 55
bicycles, 102, 161n
bifocal lenses, 222–23
bimetallic strips, 33–34
binoculars, 222
biplanes, 181
BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures), 338
Bladensburg, Battle of (1814), 81–85
Blanc, Honoré, 87, 89–94, 97, 98
Jefferson’s advocacy of system of, 90, 92–94
musket locks demonstrated by, 90–93, 96
standardized flintlock designed by, 89–90, 102
workshop of, sacked during French Revolution, 92
Blanchard, Thomas, 19n, 97, 98, 100–102
Block Mills (Portsmouth), 71–72, 73
blocks (maritime), see pulley blocks
Blow-Up, 215
Board of Longitude, British, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35–36, 64, 105
Boeing, 269
bokeh (“quality of blur”), 224
Boulton and Watt steam engines, 46, 48, 71
Bragg reflectors, 296, 297
Bramah, Joseph, 53–60, 54, 276
“challenge lock” displayed in window of, 54–55, 112n, 124, 125–27
fantastically complicated lock designed and patented by, 57, 58
Maudslay hired by, 59, 60
Maudslay’s departure from employ of, 65
Maudslay’s lock-making devices and, 60–65
slide rest invention and, 64–65
supposedly unpickable Marshall lock picked by, 56–57
various contraptions invented by, 57–58
water closets built by, 55
Brattain, Walter, 281–82, 282
Brecht, Bertolt, Life of Galileo, 1
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), 196n
British Standards Institution, 353
British Thomson-Houston (BTH), 185, 186, 187, 188, 189
Broadwell chips, 291
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 68n
Brunel, Sir Marc, 68–71, 72
BSW (British Standard Whitworth), 123
Busicom, 288–89
cadmium, unit of length based on, 344, 345
calculators, Intel’s 4004 chip in, 288–89
camera obscura, Niépce’s first photographs taken with, 223–24, 225n
cameras, 215
invention of, 223–24
Japanese, 308–9
owned by author, 219–20
tolerances for, 227–28
see also lenses; photographs
Canberra bomber, 196n
candela, definition of, 346, 347
cannon making, 39, 41–44
easily amenable to standardization, 87–88
French système Gribeauval for, 87
hollow-cast method for, 41–42
steam power and, 44
Wilkinson’s boring method for, 42–44, 87
Canon, 227, 308
Carlyle, Jane, 118
cars, see automobiles; Ford Motor Company; Rolls-Royce Motors
Carter, George, 190, 191
Cassegrain reflector, in Hubble Space Telescope, 233
cesium clocks, 104, 352–53
Chaisson, Eric, 234, 251
Challenger, 231, 232, 234, 243n, 248n
Chandra X-ray Observatory, 232n
Charleville flintlock musket, 84, 95
China:
apple tree outside metrology research center in, 354–55
Beidou navigation system of, 270
metric system and, 340n
chromatic aberration, 224, 225
chronometer, 31, 37, 259n
circle of confusion, lens design and, 224
Civil War, U.S., Whitworth rifle used in, 123–24
cleanliness standards (ISO numbers), 293–94
Clinton, Bill, 270
clock-difference navigation system:
invention of, 265–68
naming of, 268
see also Global Positioning System (GPS)
clocks, 103–6, 348
Antikythera mechanism and, 27, 28
astronomical information displayed by, 28
atomic, 104, 266, 271–72, 313, 351–53
balance mechanisms in, 33, 35, 311
/> cesium master, 104, 352–53
friction problem in, 32–33, 35
gearwheels for, 5–6
GPS, 272
inaccuracy in, 104–5
Japanese timekeeping traditions and, 310–11
long-case, 33
maritime, 29–37, 105
mechanical, invention of, 27–28
quartz, 315
see also timekeepers; watches
coal, furnaces fired by, 40, 41
Cold War, 262
Cole, Henry “Old King,” 112–13n
Colt, 102
coma (comet trail–like aberration), 224, 233, 235
combine harvesters, 102
compressors, turbine engines and, 180, 185, 186
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, 232n
computers, 276
analog, from Ancient Greece (Antikythera mechanism), 24–27, 36
personal, 287–88
see also integrated circuitry; microprocessor chips; transistors
Concorde, 195
Connecticut Valley, 102–6
clock makers in, 103–6
gun makers in, 102
Cook, Captain James, 35, 248n, 250
Corning, glass disk for Hubble mirror made by, 237, 238
COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement), 247, 248, 250, 251
Crocker’s idea for, 245–47
cotton gin, 94, 96
cotton-spinning machines, 116
Crack-Up, The (Fitzgerald), 307
craftsmanship, see handcrafting
cranes, electrical, 136–37
crankshafts, 6
Cranwell (Royal Air Force College), Whittle as student at, 180–82
Crocker, Jim, 245, 245–47
Crystal Palace (Hyde Park, London), 112, 113–14
see also Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (London, 1851)
cutting edge, both literal and figurative in mid-nineteenth century, 115–16
cylinders:
at heart of LIGO’s measuring instrument, 305, 305–6
Wilkinson’s technique for boring in iron, 42–44, 49–52, 304–6
Darby, Abraham, III, 41
“dark side,” 85–86
jet engine makers working for, 198
Perkin-Elmer as player on, 236–37
day, defining, 334, 349, 350
Day and Newell, 125, 127
Decauville, 137, 138–39, 142, 145–46, 158
Decca radio navigation system, 256–59, 262, 264
decimal time, 349n
De Dion quadricycle, 137, 158
Defense Department, U.S.:
GPS and, 270–71, 271
intelligence-gathering satellites of, 271