Comment by PaulRobinson
14 days ago
Whitworth [0] showed that you can make a more precise tool than the one you use to make it. This means you "evolve" towards tongs, or screws, or high-precision calipers, or anything else you want to make, if you use the right process.
Simon Winchester did a book on this:
_The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World_
(alternately title _Exactly_)
https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/56364115-the-perfect...
and for further technical details see:
_Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy_ by Wayne R. Moore
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262130806/foundations-of-mechan...
Please don't recommend "Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy" without also providing a source. The prices people want for it are absurd if it is even available.
Interlibrary loan through your local library?
See:
https://mooretool.com/about-us/publications/
for a form to request it.
Got a response back from Moore Tool Co.
$250 per copy, plus $20 S/H.