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If you can find a copy, you might like the book Ignition! by John Clark (some libraries have it, and there is a scanned PDF floating around online). It is abou
by Crito 12y ago
If you can find a copy, you might like the book Ignition! by John Clark (some libraries have it, and there is a scanned PDF floating around online). It is about the early development of rocket propellants (which as you might imagine covers a lot of really nasty chemicals), and is filled with these sort of humorous analogies and deliberate understatements. Very funny (and informative) book.
- Kliment 12y agoSaid PDF appears to be at bookzz.org
- pchristensen 12y agoOnly $3K on Amazon right now: http://smile.amazon.com/Ignition-informal-history-liquid-propellants/dp/0813507251/ http://smile.amazon.com/Ignition-informal-history-liquid-pro...
- dalke 12y agoOr free from http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf . Not readable (no text displays) with Firefox's PDF.js, but works just fine with Mac's Preview.app.
- justin66 12y agoTotally readable in both Chrome and IE and I bet it works fine in Safari. Firefox's pdf viewer is apparently worse than being just criminally slow.
- wlesieutre 12y agoBut hey, at least it's not Acrobat?
- wiredfool 12y agoIgnition! was a complete waste of an evening or two, but quite enjoyable. It did give me an appreciation for what to expect when rocket people talk about monopropellants. And the whole thing about flourine compounds. And an appreciation for just how safe and friendly current H/lox and Kero/Lox rockets are compared to the alternatives.