Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants (Rutgers University Press Classics)

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A classic work in the history of science, and described as â€œa good book on rocket stuff…that’s a really fun one” by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, readers will want to get their hands on this influential classic, available for the first time in decades. The story on pp 28-29 is an absolute scream; “Howard Streim opened his mouth to protest, but as he said later, ‘I saw that dog-eating grin on Doc’s face and shut it again,…’ ” The final treatment of the table had me laughing hard enough to bring tears. Second, you owe me a new bomb, a new Wianco pickup, a new stirrer, and maybe a few more things I’ll think of later. Aniline was difficult to procure, ferociously poisonous and rapidly absorbed through skin, and froze at an inconvenient -6.

A fascinating informal history of liquid fueled rocket propulsion, something that still does not go right as SpaceX found yesterday (21/4/2019). I struggled to finish this book because the author is on a mission to exhaustively described what seems like every mixture of rocket propellant ever devised, when a summary such as "and then they tried numerous other hydroxide mixtures, none of whom worked". A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel-driven civilization. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Some of the stories he tells are hilarious; some literally tragic in multiple horrific ways and some of squirming sales reps forced to make fools out of themselves because 'we need to pretend our product is special' but are talking to engineers that 'Know'.It reads almost like the biography of a rocket scientist (although it is much wider ranging than that and i found it entertaining and had a few laughs.

In addition to illuminating the technical challenges of propellant engineers, the book is also a fascinating view into the social dynamics of the rocket world. OK, to be fair if you don't have a science or engineering degree this might be heavy going, but if you do it reminds you of the first time you blew things up. Hell just an introduction by Isaac Asimov, whom the author knew personally was an excellent incentive to read this book.Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America’s nuclear arsenal. I wish this was true for all books but that’s another can of worms (just ask Google about their effort to digitize everything). M. Mason and his crew at JPL and Kay and his group at Ohio State who undertook —and completed — the heroic task of mapping the phase behavior and equilibrium pressure and composition of the nitric acid-N204-H20 system over the whole composition range of interest, up to 50% N2O4 and up to 10 percent or so H 2 O - and from room temperature up to 120°C. So I'm hesitant to give this book a 2 star review, but I think this'll be useful to other readers who are looking for a book closer to "Skunk Works", whereas this book mostly amounts to information budding space programs would be better off having in a giant Excel sheet of attempted propellant mixtures.