Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
John Drury Clark spent decades working as a propellant chemist for the United States Navy and other programs, and Ignition! is his insider history of how researchers searched for liquid fuels capable of pushing rockets into space. He walks through the major families of propellants, including the cryogenic, the storable, and the truly nightmarish, and explains why some were adopted and others quietly abandoned. The book is full of first-hand stories of fires, explosions, and chemicals so reactive that they would set sand or asbestos alight. Clark writes with a dry, self-deprecating wit and a clear technical voice that assumes the reader can follow basic chemistry. Long out of print and traded as a cult favorite among aerospace engineers, it was reissued by Rutgers University Press for a new generation of rocket builders.
What you might want to know about Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A working propellant chemist's frank, often funny account of the chemicals and accidents behind the early space age.
On KCRW's Bullseye in 2013, Musk called Ignition a really fun book on rocket stuff and named it when asked what to read to understand rockets.
Some chemistry helps, but Clark's storytelling and humor make it readable for anyone with a strong interest in rockets and propulsion.
Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants was written by John D. Clark, published in 1972 by Rutgers University Press.
Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants is 214 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
