Ignition!

[Calilasseia]

A certain John Drury Clark, who worked as a rocket fuel chemist for the US Space programme, wrote a hilarious book covering his experiences, and some of the fun and games surrounding the development of rocket propellants, bearing the title Ignition!. It's a rollicking, hilarious, and at times, scary read, and a "must have" for any Ratz who wants some eyebrow raising anecdotes to toss into conversation down the pub. The only problem being that print copies of this out-of-print book are exceedingly rare, and change hands for $400 or more.

Not to fear, it turns out that some kind person has converted the work into a downloadable PDF. Which you too can now peruse at leisure by clicking on this link. Trust me, this book makes fascinating reading, and has the additional bonus extra of a foreword by none other than Isaac Asimov. Download this, read it, and have lots of fun with the madness that was rocket fuel development in the 1950s and early 1960s.

EDIT: Even the non-chemists amongst you will baulk at some of the substances these people were playing with, and in quantity. That's before you learn that they were messing with this. Yes, a veritable who's who of nightmare reagents, many of them producing their own bonus prize of toxic and corrosive nasties if they cut loose in an uncontrolled fashion.

[mistermack]

I don't know about big space rockets, but I'm sure that fireworks have a bright future.