8 ms·

Ignition: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants (1972) [pdf]

143 points by asciimike 6y ago

sonofgod 6y ago
An absolute classic: people may not be aware it got reprinted, and is therefore available in dead-tree (and ebook) format again.
- Anneliese777 6y ago
  There is also an audio-book. I enjoyed the narrator's take on it, his occasional dead-pan reading of something ridiculous reduced me to giggles. https://www.audible.com/pd/Ignition-Audiobook/B07CTTXLL6 https://www.audible.com/pd/Ignition-Audiobook/B07CTTXLL6
sonofgod 6y ago
On chlorine trifluoride: ”It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.” (via https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sa...)
- sonofgod 6y ago
  "hypergolic: igniting spontaneously on mixing with another substance."
  - dugditches 6y ago
    This entire video is informing and related. But to your comment: https://youtu.be/Zha9DyS-PPA?t=651 https://youtu.be/Zha9DyS-PPA?t=651
- Sharlin 6y ago
  I never fail to upvote this quote.
- erik_seaberg 6y ago
  I've read every Things I Won't Work With and I wish Lowe would write more; he's the Dave Barry of chemistry.
  - jowiar 6y ago
    I spent years following Lowe for the Things he Won't Work With, but somewhere a few weeks ago I was made aware of his coverage of COVID drug development, which has been phenomenal (and is what he actually does work with).
- cstross 6y ago
  But ClF3 is harmless compared to dimethyl mercury (which he also goes into) -- and which the USAF contemplated as a reaction mass for air to air missiles, until they realized the mercury in the exhaust plume would melt their launch aircraft wings (not to mention being a potent neurotoxin), at which point they tried to sell it to the US Navy!
Ididntdothis 6y ago
It seems this book is best if you read some small excerpts. I tried to read the whole book but I found the author to be a little too full of himself to make the book enjoyable.
- masklinn 6y ago
  I guess that's an YMMV thing, I had no issue reading Ignition! and very much enjoyed the trip.
  - Ididntdothis 6y ago
    Very true. Sometimes I hate a book but when I read it again later It’s suddenly enjoyable. Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I read Ignition.
  - FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
    Same here. The day I discovered it in the engineering library, I sat down in the stack and read it cover to cover. Very difficult to put down.
- gww 6y ago
  I really struggled with this book too. I am fascinated by the research behind space travel but I find some of the books really hard to enjoy. Another one I have struggled with is Sunburst and Luminary, I may not have the technical background to appreciate it.
  - Karunamon 6y ago
    Both of you may wish to give the audiobook a try. I had the same problem with the font being nigh-unreadble. I found the narration in the audio version to be very nice.
    - gww 6y ago
      That's a great idea thanks. I am spending so much time in the car right now because of COVID and I have run out of podcasts.
hoorayimhelping 6y ago
For context, this book was out of print for a long time and the only way to get it was via PDF. The recent re-interest in rockets has led to it being re-published. https://smile.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-University-Classics/dp/0813595835/ https://smile.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-Unive...
- FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
  Before it was reprinted, a buddy was going through hard times and to help him out, I bought his hard hard-cover, near mint copy for the going rate at the time: $500.
- exmadscientist 6y ago
  I found the reprint extremely difficult to read due to poor layout decisions. In particular, the font they used for subscripts (the 3 in ClF₃) is tiny and illegible. And there are rather a lot of those in a chemistry book.... I don't think anyone proofed it.
ravedave5 6y ago
Such a great book.
jabl 6y ago
This is a classic. Although it's a subject with absolutely no relevance to the vast majority of readers, it's written in a funny dry style (for a good example, see e.g. the quote posted in another comment). It's also interesting to reflect on rocket fuels since the publication of the book. - Military rockets have mostly shifted from hypergolics to solid fuels. - Orbital rockets mostly use LOX + suitable fuel. For the fuel, seems to be good arguments for and against everything from hydrogen to heavier hydrocarbons like kerosene. - Exotics (flourine, boron, etc.) have disappeared. - For hypergolics, the remaining use is mostly RCS's, deep space stuff, but not "main" propulsion. And the oxidizer is mostly NTO rather than acid that seemed to be Clark's favorite.
- Symmetry 6y ago
  India and China still make use of hypergolics for their main launch vehicles, though both are moving away from that.
- jkachmar 6y ago
  Regarding hypergols, I love the fact that you are absolutely correct that they’re mostly relegated to places where you _need_ autoignition these days, but then you look at the Proton rocket family... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(rocket_family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(rocket_family)
  - catalogia 6y ago
    If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Titan IIs are no longer around, but they too were used into the 21st century.
    - jabl 6y ago
      Not broken, but better choices are available. Many early space rockets were outgrowths of military ballistic missile programs, where hypergolics were favoured due to storability, as being able to launch on a moment's notice was critical. But for launching satellites or humans into orbit, that's not a particularly relevant consideration. On the downside, hypergolics are expensive, and their toxicity makes handling them more expensive still. Meanwhile, cryogenic technology has developed and is today affordable and reliable. Heck, even amateur efforts like Copenhagen Suborbitals are using LOX.
lighttower 6y ago
I read the book cover to cover after finding references to it by Derek Lowe on his pipeline blog [1]. Learned a lot about chemistry and the enormous investment that went into the space age (mostly because of overlapping technology for ICBMs and other rocket powered weapons) which is daunting as this book ONLY covers what's been declassified as of the 80s in propelants. [1] blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/
steffan 6y ago
If you liked Ignition you may also like Eric Schlosser's Command and Control. I thought it was well written and enjoyed his style of weaving the story throughout the book.
hprotagonist 6y ago
If you like this (and you should), I also recommend: Gergel, M. G. (1979). Excuse me sir, would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide? Retrieved from http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopropyl_bromide.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopr... We had never had such a dreadful assignment. Anyone working with this “superstink” is branded and given a wide berth. No matter how amorous his spouse may be, passion crumples despite baths, Chlorox and Dentine. For a while we made isovaleroyl chloride at Cedar Terrace. It created pandemonium among residents who first sniffed each other, came to the plant to sniff us, and then sniffled to their lawyers.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  Also see Selenophenol: > The biggest stinker I have run across... Imagine 6 skunks wrapped in rubber innertubes and the whole thing is set ablaze. That might approach the metaphysical stench of this material. > I believe that this lovely compound is commercially available (if you’re anywhere close to anyone making it, you’ll know about it) From https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2012/05/15/things_i_wont_work_with_selenophenol https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2012/05/15/th...
tectonic 6y ago
This book is way more entertaining than one would expect of a book from 1972 about rocket propellants. It's now back in print, probably because Musk called it "fun". In addition to the infamous section about chlorine trifluoride and running shoes, I learned a lot about hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer and monopropellant, as well as enjoyed a section on nuclear rockets. If you're into this sort of nerdery, you might enjoy The Orbital Index, my weekly newsletter about the space industry. https://orbitalindex.com https://orbitalindex.com
- tectonic 6y ago
  Scott Manley has a good video about hypergolic fuels too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLmqQ5ceS8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLmqQ5ceS8
- peterwoerner 6y ago
  I subscribed.
xxpor 6y ago
If you enjoy this stuff, NileRed did a video a year and a half ago on hypergolic chemicals and experimented with making nozzles out of test tubes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OszX18NLtrY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OszX18NLtrY
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
Awesome book! I have this (in digital form). Derek Lowe mentions it in one of my favorite In the Pipeline articles: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sa...
sciencemadness 6y ago
It's always a pleasure to see Sciencemadness linked here. The link is usually to this book, and with good reason. It's a classic. You don't have to be a chemist to enjoy it (though that helps). I have a main account here but I never comment on Sciencemadness submissions through it because the site so easily reveals my real-life identity. I first discovered Ignition! on the shelves of the Medford, Oregon public library when I was 10 years old. I was hooked on my first reading and would go on to read it several more times before I entered my teens. It was tied with Tenney L. Davis's The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives as my favorite non-fiction book. I started the Sciencemadness library [1] a long time ago, before the big book-scanning initiatives like Google Books started. The library still contains a large number of books that are unremarkable except for the fact that they were among the first digitized books covering certain facets of chemistry to be made available online. The library does contain a couple of books less famous than Ignition! but also potentially interesting to non-chemist readers: Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide? This is an anecdotal, autobiographical sketch of Max Gergel and his adventures as a young (then older) mad scientist building the business Columbia Organic Chemicals. Columbia Organic Chemicals and its founder, Max Gergel, had the unusual honor of mention and praise by name in Kary Mullis's Nobel lecture [2]: "I never tired of tinkering in labs. During the summer breaks from Georgia Tech, Al Montgomery and I built an organic synthesis lab in an old chicken house on the edge of town where we made research chemicals to sell. Most of them were noxious or either explosive. No one else wanted to make them, somebody wanted them, and so their production became our domain. We suffered no boredom and no boss. We made enough money to buy new equipment. Max Gergel, who ran Columbia Organic Chemicals Company, and who was an unusually nice man, encouraged us and bought most of our products, which he resold. There were no government regulators to stifle our fledgling efforts, and it was a golden age, but we didn't notice it. We learned a lot of organic chemistry." The chicken coop lab full of noxious chemicals isn't far removed from how Max Gergel got his start in the chemistry business either. In this humorous, anecdotal chronicle of Max's life from high school mad scientist to successful operator of a chemical supply business, you'll learn where metallic potassium should NOT be stored, how to prepare perfectly alcohol-free n-dodecyl bromide, and why one man would be crazy enough to want a preparative scale procedure for methyl isocyanide. You'll also learn, humorously but quite clearly, how the golden age of "no government regulators" contained the seeds of its own destruction, as horrendous odors, accidental poisonings, dumpings, fires, and miscellaneous accidents and occupational hazards take their toll on Gergel and his employees, neighbors, and surrounding environs. http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopropyl_bromide.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopr... The Scientific Method: A Personal Account of Unusual Projects in War and in Peace Famed Harvard chemistry professor Louis Fieser's personal history of development of incendiary weapons during WW II, including the infamous Bat Bomb, plus development of cortisone, antimalarial drugs, and educational material for students. Louis Fieser joined the American war effort before America had even officially entered World War II, as one of 20 professor invited to the house of Roger Adams in October 1940 to join the National Defense Research Committee. He was instructed early on to work on chemical vesicants but, considering them inhumane, quickly made a lateral move to begin development of gelled gasoline incendiary weapons. He led the research effort behind napalm, several other components of large-scale incendiary ordnance, and smaller special purpose incendiary devices for use by spies and saboteurs. Fieser's strangest project was development of the Bat Bomb: a cluster-bomb arrangement of hibernating bats carrying time-delayed incendiaries. As the bats fell from bombers over enemy cities, they would rouse from hibernation mid-air and seek shelter in attics of the city below. Their incendiaries would then start concealed, hard-to-fight fires. The project was surprisingly successful for one never deployed, and included the own-goal immolation of an administrative building during testing. When Fieser was not working on setting fires he also had time to begin work on the first edition of his organic chemistry textbook, research cortisone chemistry, and work on antimalarial drugs. The information given late in the book about getting cats to pose for photographs with chemical apparatus is invaluable because it comes from real experience. http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/the_scientific_method.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/the_scientif... [1] http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/ http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/ [2]
cclark00 6y ago
The most jaw dropping but easily missed story I remember from that book: "That was the case once, when we were all seated around the table in the middle of the lab, having lunch. I glanced up, and noticed that the contents of one flask was turning a little brown. "Who owns that one?" [...they hit the deck as it exploded] Who eats lunch in a chemistry lab?
- catalogia 6y ago
  Hungry foolhardy chemists.
- CarVac 6y ago
  Rocket scientists. The ones who gave rocket science its reputation.
- projektfu 6y ago
  That's how etorphine was discovered! Well, having tea and stirring it with a "clean" glass rod.
dang 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20729115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20729115 was 9 months ago. Reposts are fine after a year or so: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. It's best to check HN search, for example like this: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E0%20Ignition%20informal&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... See also: 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15155394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15155394 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10683778 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10683778

143 points by asciimike 6y ago

An absolute classic: people may not be aware it got reprinted, and is therefore available in dead-tree (and ebook) format again.

Anneliese777 6y ago
There is also an audio-book. I enjoyed the narrator's take on it, his occasional dead-pan reading of something ridiculous reduced me to giggles. https://www.audible.com/pd/Ignition-Audiobook/B07CTTXLL6 https://www.audible.com/pd/Ignition-Audiobook/B07CTTXLL6

sonofgod 6y ago

On chlorine trifluoride: ”It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.” (via https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sa...)

sonofgod 6y ago
"hypergolic: igniting spontaneously on mixing with another substance."
- dugditches 6y ago
  This entire video is informing and related. But to your comment: https://youtu.be/Zha9DyS-PPA?t=651 https://youtu.be/Zha9DyS-PPA?t=651
Sharlin 6y ago
I never fail to upvote this quote.
erik_seaberg 6y ago
I've read every Things I Won't Work With and I wish Lowe would write more; he's the Dave Barry of chemistry.
- jowiar 6y ago
  I spent years following Lowe for the Things he Won't Work With, but somewhere a few weeks ago I was made aware of his coverage of COVID drug development, which has been phenomenal (and is what he actually does work with).
cstross 6y ago
But ClF3 is harmless compared to dimethyl mercury (which he also goes into) -- and which the USAF contemplated as a reaction mass for air to air missiles, until they realized the mercury in the exhaust plume would melt their launch aircraft wings (not to mention being a potent neurotoxin), at which point they tried to sell it to the US Navy!

Ididntdothis 6y ago

It seems this book is best if you read some small excerpts. I tried to read the whole book but I found the author to be a little too full of himself to make the book enjoyable.

masklinn 6y ago
I guess that's an YMMV thing, I had no issue reading Ignition! and very much enjoyed the trip.
- Ididntdothis 6y ago
  Very true. Sometimes I hate a book but when I read it again later It’s suddenly enjoyable. Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I read Ignition.
- FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
  Same here. The day I discovered it in the engineering library, I sat down in the stack and read it cover to cover. Very difficult to put down.
gww 6y ago
I really struggled with this book too. I am fascinated by the research behind space travel but I find some of the books really hard to enjoy. Another one I have struggled with is Sunburst and Luminary, I may not have the technical background to appreciate it.
- Karunamon 6y ago
  Both of you may wish to give the audiobook a try. I had the same problem with the font being nigh-unreadble. I found the narration in the audio version to be very nice.
  - gww 6y ago
    That's a great idea thanks. I am spending so much time in the car right now because of COVID and I have run out of podcasts.

hoorayimhelping 6y ago

For context, this book was out of print for a long time and the only way to get it was via PDF. The recent re-interest in rockets has led to it being re-published. https://smile.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-University-Classics/dp/0813595835/ https://smile.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-Unive...

FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
Before it was reprinted, a buddy was going through hard times and to help him out, I bought his hard hard-cover, near mint copy for the going rate at the time: $500.
exmadscientist 6y ago
I found the reprint extremely difficult to read due to poor layout decisions. In particular, the font they used for subscripts (the 3 in ClF₃) is tiny and illegible. And there are rather a lot of those in a chemistry book.... I don't think anyone proofed it.

ravedave5 6y ago

Such a great book.

jabl 6y ago

This is a classic. Although it's a subject with absolutely no relevance to the vast majority of readers, it's written in a funny dry style (for a good example, see e.g. the quote posted in another comment). It's also interesting to reflect on rocket fuels since the publication of the book. - Military rockets have mostly shifted from hypergolics to solid fuels. - Orbital rockets mostly use LOX + suitable fuel. For the fuel, seems to be good arguments for and against everything from hydrogen to heavier hydrocarbons like kerosene. - Exotics (flourine, boron, etc.) have disappeared. - For hypergolics, the remaining use is mostly RCS's, deep space stuff, but not "main" propulsion. And the oxidizer is mostly NTO rather than acid that seemed to be Clark's favorite.

Symmetry 6y ago
India and China still make use of hypergolics for their main launch vehicles, though both are moving away from that.
jkachmar 6y ago
Regarding hypergols, I love the fact that you are absolutely correct that they’re mostly relegated to places where you _need_ autoignition these days, but then you look at the Proton rocket family... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(rocket_family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(rocket_family)
- catalogia 6y ago
  If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Titan IIs are no longer around, but they too were used into the 21st century.
  - jabl 6y ago
    Not broken, but better choices are available. Many early space rockets were outgrowths of military ballistic missile programs, where hypergolics were favoured due to storability, as being able to launch on a moment's notice was critical. But for launching satellites or humans into orbit, that's not a particularly relevant consideration. On the downside, hypergolics are expensive, and their toxicity makes handling them more expensive still. Meanwhile, cryogenic technology has developed and is today affordable and reliable. Heck, even amateur efforts like Copenhagen Suborbitals are using LOX.

lighttower 6y ago

I read the book cover to cover after finding references to it by Derek Lowe on his pipeline blog [1]. Learned a lot about chemistry and the enormous investment that went into the space age (mostly because of overlapping technology for ICBMs and other rocket powered weapons) which is daunting as this book ONLY covers what's been declassified as of the 80s in propelants. [1] blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/

steffan 6y ago

If you liked Ignition you may also like Eric Schlosser's Command and Control. I thought it was well written and enjoyed his style of weaving the story throughout the book.

hprotagonist 6y ago

If you like this (and you should), I also recommend: Gergel, M. G. (1979). Excuse me sir, would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide? Retrieved from http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopropyl_bromide.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopr... We had never had such a dreadful assignment. Anyone working with this “superstink” is branded and given a wide berth. No matter how amorous his spouse may be, passion crumples despite baths, Chlorox and Dentine. For a while we made isovaleroyl chloride at Cedar Terrace. It created pandemonium among residents who first sniffed each other, came to the plant to sniff us, and then sniffled to their lawyers.

Nextgrid 6y ago
Also see Selenophenol: > The biggest stinker I have run across... Imagine 6 skunks wrapped in rubber innertubes and the whole thing is set ablaze. That might approach the metaphysical stench of this material. > I believe that this lovely compound is commercially available (if you’re anywhere close to anyone making it, you’ll know about it) From https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2012/05/15/things_i_wont_work_with_selenophenol https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2012/05/15/th...

tectonic 6y ago

This book is way more entertaining than one would expect of a book from 1972 about rocket propellants. It's now back in print, probably because Musk called it "fun". In addition to the infamous section about chlorine trifluoride and running shoes, I learned a lot about hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer and monopropellant, as well as enjoyed a section on nuclear rockets. If you're into this sort of nerdery, you might enjoy The Orbital Index, my weekly newsletter about the space industry. https://orbitalindex.com https://orbitalindex.com

tectonic 6y ago
Scott Manley has a good video about hypergolic fuels too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLmqQ5ceS8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLmqQ5ceS8
peterwoerner 6y ago
I subscribed.

xxpor 6y ago

If you enjoy this stuff, NileRed did a video a year and a half ago on hypergolic chemicals and experimented with making nozzles out of test tubes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OszX18NLtrY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OszX18NLtrY

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago

Awesome book! I have this (in digital form). Derek Lowe mentions it in one of my favorite In the Pipeline articles: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sa...

sciencemadness 6y ago

It's always a pleasure to see Sciencemadness linked here. The link is usually to this book, and with good reason. It's a classic. You don't have to be a chemist to enjoy it (though that helps). I have a main account here but I never comment on Sciencemadness submissions through it because the site so easily reveals my real-life identity. I first discovered Ignition! on the shelves of the Medford, Oregon public library when I was 10 years old. I was hooked on my first reading and would go on to read it several more times before I entered my teens. It was tied with Tenney L. Davis's The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives as my favorite non-fiction book. I started the Sciencemadness library [1] a long time ago, before the big book-scanning initiatives like Google Books started. The library still contains a large number of books that are unremarkable except for the fact that they were among the first digitized books covering certain facets of chemistry to be made available online. The library does contain a couple of books less famous than Ignition! but also potentially interesting to non-chemist readers: Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide? This is an anecdotal, autobiographical sketch of Max Gergel and his adventures as a young (then older) mad scientist building the business Columbia Organic Chemicals. Columbia Organic Chemicals and its founder, Max Gergel, had the unusual honor of mention and praise by name in Kary Mullis's Nobel lecture [2]: "I never tired of tinkering in labs. During the summer breaks from Georgia Tech, Al Montgomery and I built an organic synthesis lab in an old chicken house on the edge of town where we made research chemicals to sell. Most of them were noxious or either explosive. No one else wanted to make them, somebody wanted them, and so their production became our domain. We suffered no boredom and no boss. We made enough money to buy new equipment. Max Gergel, who ran Columbia Organic Chemicals Company, and who was an unusually nice man, encouraged us and bought most of our products, which he resold. There were no government regulators to stifle our fledgling efforts, and it was a golden age, but we didn't notice it. We learned a lot of organic chemistry." The chicken coop lab full of noxious chemicals isn't far removed from how Max Gergel got his start in the chemistry business either. In this humorous, anecdotal chronicle of Max's life from high school mad scientist to successful operator of a chemical supply business, you'll learn where metallic potassium should NOT be stored, how to prepare perfectly alcohol-free n-dodecyl bromide, and why one man would be crazy enough to want a preparative scale procedure for methyl isocyanide. You'll also learn, humorously but quite clearly, how the golden age of "no government regulators" contained the seeds of its own destruction, as horrendous odors, accidental poisonings, dumpings, fires, and miscellaneous accidents and occupational hazards take their toll on Gergel and his employees, neighbors, and surrounding environs. http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopropyl_bromide.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/gergel_isopr... The Scientific Method: A Personal Account of Unusual Projects in War and in Peace Famed Harvard chemistry professor Louis Fieser's personal history of development of incendiary weapons during WW II, including the infamous Bat Bomb, plus development of cortisone, antimalarial drugs, and educational material for students. Louis Fieser joined the American war effort before America had even officially entered World War II, as one of 20 professor invited to the house of Roger Adams in October 1940 to join the National Defense Research Committee. He was instructed early on to work on chemical vesicants but, considering them inhumane, quickly made a lateral move to begin development of gelled gasoline incendiary weapons. He led the research effort behind napalm, several other components of large-scale incendiary ordnance, and smaller special purpose incendiary devices for use by spies and saboteurs. Fieser's strangest project was development of the Bat Bomb: a cluster-bomb arrangement of hibernating bats carrying time-delayed incendiaries. As the bats fell from bombers over enemy cities, they would rouse from hibernation mid-air and seek shelter in attics of the city below. Their incendiaries would then start concealed, hard-to-fight fires. The project was surprisingly successful for one never deployed, and included the own-goal immolation of an administrative building during testing. When Fieser was not working on setting fires he also had time to begin work on the first edition of his organic chemistry textbook, research cortisone chemistry, and work on antimalarial drugs. The information given late in the book about getting cats to pose for photographs with chemical apparatus is invaluable because it comes from real experience. http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/the_scientific_method.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/the_scientif... [1] http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/ http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/ [2]

cclark00 6y ago

The most jaw dropping but easily missed story I remember from that book: "That was the case once, when we were all seated around the table in the middle of the lab, having lunch. I glanced up, and noticed that the contents of one flask was turning a little brown. "Who owns that one?" [...they hit the deck as it exploded] Who eats lunch in a chemistry lab?

catalogia 6y ago
Hungry foolhardy chemists.
CarVac 6y ago
Rocket scientists. The ones who gave rocket science its reputation.
projektfu 6y ago
That's how etorphine was discovered! Well, having tea and stirring it with a "clean" glass rod.

dang 6y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20729115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20729115 was 9 months ago. Reposts are fine after a year or so: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. It's best to check HN search, for example like this: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E0%20Ignition%20informal&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... See also: 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15155394 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15155394 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10683778 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10683778