Elegant History

The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World – Simon Winchester (Harper)

When people ask me what I do for my day job, I have often used the line that I translate doctor to English or taking complex medical information and making it easier to understand for the average person. That is almost what I see historian and bestselling author Simon Winchester’s role as: taking often distant and arcane information from history and transforming it into relatable, sparkling writing.

In his latest outing, The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World, Winchester speaks of finely machined gears as things of “beauty and utility.” While the goal of all writers is to tell a story, not all writers are storytellers; Winchester certainly clears that bar with ease as he crafts stories of contributions of often little-known innovators who have had a dramatic impact on our lives through their inventions.

While even history buffs may blanch at the thought of reading, let alone finding interesting, a book about precision engineers Winchester manages to make intriguing with vivid, detailed stories the tales of hydraulic presses, precision machine tools and the men of micrometers.

He writes of the simplicity and elegance of the problem solving that went into so many of these precision devices, who’s use has become so commonplace. These stories could not have been better placed, than in the hands of a master craftsman and wordsmith like Simon Winchester.