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  Index

  The pagination of this digital edition does not match the print edition from which the index was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your ebook reader’s search tools.

  (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