Introduction to GBR
If you’re like me, you’ve been getting a deluge of emails about new regulations in Europe kicking into place called the GDPR. Don’t worry, this post isn’t about that. GBR stands for the Gereshes Book Review. I’ve been reading plenty of good engineering/science/math books lately and I’ve wanted to share my thoughts on them. This will be an irregular series of indefinite length but may cover books like How to lie with statistics, Sidewinder, Skunkworks. In these posts I’ll write up a review of the book including what I liked, what I disliked, and what my opinions are of it. Hopefully the books that interest me are similar to the books that interest you and we can expand our literary horizons. I’ll try to keep the books on topics tangentially related to this blog like aerospace engineering and math.
If you have a book you would like me to review, email me at ari@gerehses.com and I’ll check it out. No guarantee’s I’ll review it though
3… 2.. 1. Ignition!
Igntition! by John D. Clark, is as its subtitle implies “An informal history of liquid rocket propellants”. It’s been considered one of the top books on rocket propellant since its original publishing in 1972. Elon Musk and Isaac Asimov both gave this book glowing reviews. Asimov went so far as to write a forward for it. With such well known names vouching for this book and it’s initial single run in 1972 it’s often been a hard book to get. Last year, 2017, this book has had a second printing and that’s when I picked up my copy of it.
Overview of the Book
The book begins in the 1900’s with early rocket fuel development and continues with the different international spurts until it reaches the end of WW2. From there it continues on with a focus on US progress. Chapter 3 focuses on the US’s hunt for a hyperbolic fuel that would meet the US military requirements. Chapter 4 focuses on the second half of any liquid fuel system, the oxidizer. The book takes a quick detour about peroxide and then it goes on to halogen fuels. Chapter 7 focuses on how a rockets performance is measured and chapter 8 focuses on LOX (Liquid oxygen, not the fish), FLOX (Still not the fish), and general cryogenic fuels. Another two detours onto what the Russians were doing and “exotic fuels” later we reach chapter 11 which is all about monopropellant. Chapter 12 talks about high density fuels, before chapter 13 closes out the book with a short and succinct discussion about what comes next. While this is a second printing, it has not been updated since the 1970’s so one would expect this section to be vastly outdated. It is outdated, but it allows us to compare the authors prediction against reality. Most of the author’s predictions came true with the exception of one area. Today solid propellant boosters are used in certain cases where he expected liquid propellant to be used. This difference is a small one, and, as he is a liquid propellant expert one would expect a slant towards liquid propellant instead of solid propellant.
About the Author
The book is written by John D Clark who worked for years as a rocket fuel developer and chemist. He is in an ideal place to tell the story of rocket fuel development because not only did he started working on it in the late 1940’s just as rockets were begin to get off the ground, pun intended, he also plated a key role in several of the developments.
What I Liked
Along with Dr Clark’s work as a rocket fuel developer, he also wrote science fiction, and it shows. This book is extremity easy to read and enjoyable. It includes a fare number of technical details, but doesn’t feel dry like a technical report at any point. This is an impressive achievement, and one that should hopefully be copied when writing about technical matters. As someone who tries, and often fails, to write this way on my blog it’s a difficult technique to master. Dr Clark does it masterfully. He breaks up text with funny stories from his time in the industry, and makes chemicals become more than just a name through his tendency to display chemical formulas and certain equations. His jokes are funny, the stories intriguing, and the writing is crisp and clear.
What I Didn’t
Chemistry and I have a simple relationship. I hate chemistry and chemistry hates me. Aside from a single AP chem class in high school, I have always taken the least number of chemistry classes required. Dr Clark is a chemist by both education and trade and this book is full of technical chemical details. It’s impossible to go more than 2 pages without running into a new chemical name. Personally, I could have done with a little less technical details but that’s a personal preference. Considering how much I dislike chemistry I’m surprised that I still enjoyed this book as much as I did. It’s probably because while he goes into technical chemical details, you don’t need a technical knowledge to understand him. If you are a little chemically inclined you’ll probably enjoy the rich detail he goes into.
Conclusion
In conclusion this book is a great read. I highly enjoyed it and can recommend it to everyone with an inkling of interest in liquid rocketry propellant. I’m a fast reader and it took me a few days to get through it.
If you know anyone with an interest in chemistry or rockets this book would make a great gift. The book has been out since the 70’s but because there was only one printing before 2017 the copies are scarce and sell for $1000+ on amazon. The new printing is much more affordable at <$20.
You’ve reached the end of the first book review. If you liked it or think there’s something I should change about it, please let me know in the comments down below!
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