17. PERFECTIONISM – The Perfectionism of Joseph Whitworth
Joseph collected screws from all over England, paying careful attention to how each did its job as a fastener. He also studied the thread of each one noting the number of threads per inch, the angle of the thread, and the distance between each thread. From this, he proposed a uniform standard for the manufacture of screws, thus simplifying and accelerating the manufacturing pro- cess around the world.
The next leap forward for greater precision happened in 1844 when Joseph made a machine that could measure lengths at an unheard-of accuracy of one-thousandth of an inch. This unit of measurement is called the thou. A piece of paper is 2 - 4 thou thick. Still, Whitworth was not satisfied. A thousandth of an inch was not enough. He wanted more precision, and he knew he could get closer to perfection. And so, fifteen years later, in 1859, he created a machine capable of measuring to an unthinkable level of preci- sion, a millionth of an inch!
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