John Drury Clark (1907–1988)

Author John D. Clark’s ideal audience is propellant scientists and rocket engineers. They will appreciate his long experience and considerable technical savvy. If you’re not a propellant person, having had solid courses in chemistry will lessen the difficulties. The incantatory power of chemical names provides the narrative with an epic quality, almost as if the chemicals were characters in a saga and the chemists and engineers minor warring gods or spirits. Workers confront odors next to which the brimstone ones of Hades are as violets, and always looming near are surly phenomena capable of explosive complaints. I enjoyed Clark’s ever-present sense of humor. Any time the words “I had the bright idea . . . ” appear, you are about to be told how dangerously un-bright that idea proved. And his clear-eyed assessment of the computers of yore is perfect: “Everyone…has had, from time to time, a mad desire to attack the precocious abacus with an axe.” Oh, I love that line.

One thing not especially discussed in detail is the question of value. Clark talks about how programs that had been set aside would be started again years later and still without useful result. What was necessary for these re-starts? New engineering developments elsewhere? Better fundamental chemical understanding developed in academia or industry or other arms efforts? One comes away thinking not necessarily, that re-funding a lapsed program sometimes just boiled down to lobbying skill.

Isaac Asimov contributes a fun introduction. A useful glossary and index are included.… (más)