Exactly
A recount of the progress of precision from the Renaissance to current times, and the effects on engineering, sciences and society
Exactly, by Simon Winchester.
I finished this a few days ago. It is a very interesting story, from middle ages until now, about how the idea and implementation of precise measurements progressed on time, and the effects it has on other activities.
Most of the story around precision was new to me. How the manual work in the guns components affected the wars in Europe and America. How variances in a screw affected the tolerances of those components. How the use of metal tools enhanced the precision. How the production line was enabled by machine tools, and its philosophical alternative.
I haven't read the author before, but his style is one I liked a lot. From the start he goes about how his father shared engineeri8ng pride with him, and then the mix between history, anecdotes and analysis resulted in a book very engaging for me, which I finished in a few days wanting to follow other books on similar lines.
I am already recommending this book to my engineering aligned friends.