quicksilver - 30-1-2012 at 14:59
I wanted to start a thread on the BEST books you have read on the subject of Energetic materials as we have a "Worst
Books" thread. In the ScienceMadness site Library are scanned several excellent books and I have been approached with some excellent other books to
place there (all Public Domain*).
There are many excellent books and encyclopedias on Energetic materials. Urbanski and Federoff are generally available to the majority through scans.
I have made an attempt to buy them and they are now not only rare, but unusually expensive (the PATR full collection is well over a thousand dollars -
when you can even find it). Many books on the subject are considered to be true "rare books" and priced accordingly. So the idea of having a scan is
often the only method the average individual could hope to collect.
I would have to point to Tenny Davis' "Chemistry of Powder & Explosives" as perhaps one of the best books (IMO) to study as it's well documented
and reliable. Naoum's "Nitroglycerin & Nitroglycerin Explosives" is a close second. They are also inexpensive to buy a hard copy.
When I first began to have a much more serious interest in this subject I was directed to study it & after a time I found that reading about the
subject was certainly divided into either chemistry-orient materials from the local College of Mines and Journal articles, "classical" material from
military-science publications (PATR and similar), basic chemistry & physics material.....and the "crap-books" (of which there are dozens). A bit
could be said about Steven Preisler's book but I will leave that for later discussion.
The Journal of Propellants, Explosives & Pyrotechnics was a fantastic resource. in the 1990's when much of the discussions on this subject were
limited to UseNet (Alt.Engineering.Explosives & Rec. Pyrotechnics) I began to see names of both paid professionals and post-Graduate & PhD
candidates appearing in Journals and professional magazines (I worked for a time at a mine and we would get "Explosive Engineering" & a great deal
of ISEE texts).
If you have a book you feel was of great help to you in understanding the science of energetic materials I would like to hear what you enjoyed even if
it's subject matter was broad in scope.
A book that helped me a great deal was an undergrad textbook entitled "Chemistry, the Molecular Science" by Moore & Stanitski. It had a wonderful
way of presenting the math elements of chemistry in a very digestible fashion.
Enclosed is a copy of a work done by a contributor to UseNet back then (Arno Hahma) the Journal of Propellants, Explosives, & Pyrotechnics that
took to task the issue of "Does Flash Detonate" - which was a VERY popular subject for discussion. Arno had a chance to use some of the latest
equipment in laboratory use at the time look at the subject from both a chemistry and physics perspective and the results were very interesting!**
Finding more rich sources of quality information is really what I would like contribute as i know that there are many books that, although obscure,
can help drive up the learning curve. Feel free to contribute what books or sources of information have helped you. Texts such as "The Organic
Chemistry Survival Guide" (Zubrick) have some significant safety and setup tips for a large or tiny lab. "Advanced Practical Organic Chemistry"
(Casey) have some very elegant tips on setting up experiments with minimal use of exotic glassware or expensive analytical machinery.
*Public Domain material is that which the copyright has expired and may freely to distributed without cost.
** The article is a portion of the PEP: not all of which is reprinted below.
Attachment: Num_model_flash.pdf (637kB)
This file has been downloaded 1827 times
Bot0nist - 30-1-2012 at 17:13
Sorry, I don't have anything new to add to the thread. Only that when I first started lurking on SciMad I read several posts stating "read COPAE". At
first, I didn't know what this "COPAE" was. Then I found it. Read it cover to cover, and then reread many chapters again. This was a really great
read, and I really feel like I learned so, so much from it. Thanks again SciMad, for hosting and recommending COPAE, by Davis.
The_Davster - 31-1-2012 at 02:10
The organic chemistry of explosives
Pulverulescent - 31-1-2012 at 02:38
"Finnegan's Wake" and "Waiting for Godot" ─ Joyce's tome is sooo fucking hilarious you'll pull your hair out by the handfull .
. .
Ooops! Er, 'sorry, I seem to have misread the thread-title! (
)
P
quicksilver - 31-1-2012 at 15:49
GUN POWDER by Kelly is a great book written in a very readable
format that is more a history & performance book than a pure science text. If you grew up with BP and still think these is more to it's history
and composition.......you may love it.
caterpillar - 1-2-2012 at 05:50
To say nothing about russian books, that I read, I like this one: Jai_Prakash_Agrawal_Robert_Hodgson-Organic_Chemistry_of_Explosives-Wiley(2007).
There is info about many not well-known compaunds and methods of their preparation. I found it very interesting, despite it doesn't content detailed
instruction. It is chemistry, not manual.