[antigonemerlin]

The lathe is honestly one of the most underrated inventions of modern civilization.

Though I can't recall of the top of my head, there are certainly more than a few inventions which were simply not practical to build before the invention of the lathe because the tolerances were not good enough with traditional techniques.

[WillAdams]

There's an entire books series on this concept, the "Gingery" books where the first in the series is setting up a foundry for casting, while the second is making a lathe from investment castings because a lathe is the only tool in a workshop which can duplicate itself.

https://gingerybookstore.com/

the balance of the books are making the other tools in a machine shop.

Had the second book once upon a time, and will eventually get the entire set.

[Youden]

The practical kind of steam engine that drove the industrial revolution is one example. Steam engines existed earlier but when they started turning the cylinders, they became much more efficient which allowed them to be used for a much larger variety of tasks.

"The Perfectionists" by Simon Winchester goes into a whole lot of detail about the history of precision and the role it's taken.

[roelschroeven]

Also Machine Thinking's videos "The 1751 Machine that Made Everything" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA), "Origins of Precision" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRnrn5DE58) and some others on his channel.

[a2tech]

There's an argument to be made that the rapid advancement of human technology is down to the creation of the metal lathe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA&t=751s