Reminds me of "Ignition!", which is, if nothing else, a very entertaining read. Those dudes out of necessity had to work with every dangerous and explosive chem

Reminds me of "Ignition!", which is, if nothing else, a very entertaining read. Those dudes out of necessity had to work with every dangerous and explosive chemical known (and discovered a few in the process). At one point in order to boost the thrust of engine they _sprayed liquid mercury_ into the nozzle. Unsuccessful tests often meant that the building housing the rocket motor would be demolished by explosion, often simply because some chemical ran the wrong way in the tubing due to pressure differential or some newly discovered rocket fuel or oxidizer had a reaction with some minuscule contamination in the fuel or oxidizer line. There were also some proposed fuels (butyl mercaptan) that smelled so foul, they had to evacuate buildings, but that did not stop them from experimenting with them in a wooden shack 200 yards away from the main building.