Apparently in the same way that computer scientists worry about "bugs", rocket scientists have to be concerned with "rats": But here an unexpected complicati

Apparently in the same way that computer scientists worry about "bugs", rocket scientists have to be concerned with "rats": But here an unexpected complication showed up. The peroxide was to be stored aboard airplane carriers in aluminum tanks. And then suddenly it was discovered that trace quantities of chlorides in peroxide made the latter peculiarly corrosive to aluminum. How to keep traces of chloride out of anything when you're sitting on an ocean of salt water was a problem whose solution was not entirely obvious. And there was always the problem of gross pollution. Say that somebody dropped (accidentally or otherwise) a greasy wrench into 10,000 gallons of 90 percent peroxide in the hold of the ship. What would happen—and would the ship survive? This question so worried people that one functionary in the Rocket Branch (safely in Washington) who had apparently been reading Captain Horatio Horn- blower, wanted us at NARTS to build ourselves a 10,000- gallon tank, fill it up with 90 percent peroxide, and then drop into it—so help me God—one rat. (He didn't specify the sex of the rat.) It was with considerable difficulty that our chief managed to get him to scale his order down to one test tube of peroxide and one quarter inch of rat tail. Brilliant short book, thanks for posting!