ABOUT THIS BOOK

A classic work in the history of science. Readers will want to get their hands on this influential classic, available for the first time in decades.

This newly reissued debut book in the Rutgers University Press Classics imprint is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety.

Acclaimed scientist and sci-fi author John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise which eventually took men to the moon, missiles to the planets, and satellites to outer space.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

JOHN DRURY CLARK (1907 - 1988) was an American rocket fuel developer, chemist, and science fiction writer. In addition to his work as a scientist, he was instrumental in the broad revival of interest in Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories and an influence on the writing of Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt, and other sci-fi authors.

ISAAC ASIMOV (1920 - 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. A prolific writer, he published more than 500 books, most notably the science fiction novels I, Robot and Foundation, and the popular science works, Guide to Science and Understanding Physics.

REVIEWS

"Read this book. You’ll find plenty about John and all the other sky-high crackpots who were in the field with him and you may even get (as I did) a glimpse of the heroic excitement that seemed to make it reasonable to cuddle with death every waking moment—to say nothing of learning a heck of a lot about the way in which the business of science is really conducted."

— Issac Asimov, from the foreword

"Ignition!, originally written in 1972, is back in print after a long hiatus. A classic book, it tells a rollicking story of an era when space was the frontier. An informative history, it reads like an adventure story."

— Galveston County Daily News

"This insider's account of the early years of rocketry captures the excitement of researching and developing technologies that lie outside the realm of computer science."

— Inc.

"Ignition! is a hard-to-get-your-hands-on account of early rocket science...Clark was an American chemist active in the development of rocket fuels back in the 1960s and 1970s, and the book is both an account of the growth of the field and an explainer of how the science works."

— Business Insider

"The funniest, most accessible book on rocket science. . . . Often hilarious, always informative, this history of rocket science is a must-read. It's rare that a book about as high-minded and serious a topic as rocket science manages to be both highly informative and laugh-out-loud funny. But if there's a better way to describe John Clark's Ignition!, I've yet to discover it. A cult classic among chemists."

— Ars Technica

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

In Re John D. Clark - foreword by Issac Asimov

Preface

1    How It Started

2    Peenemunde and JPL

3    The Hunting of the Hypergol . . .

4    . . . and Its Mate

5    Peroxide – Always a Bridesmaid

6    Halogens and Politics and Deep Space

7    Performance

8    Lox and Flox and Cryogenics in General

9    What Ivan Was Doing

10    “Exotics”

11    The Hopeful Monoprops

12    High Density and the Higher Foolishness

13    What Happens Next

Glossary

Index