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The text recounts the author’s meeting with John D. Clark, highlighting Clark’s character, friendship, and breadth of knowledge. It also ties scientific practice to risk, detailing how failures can occur and how successes were achieved, while concluding with the book’s promise of candid insight into the field’s realities.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/ignition-an-informal-history-of-liquid-rocket-propellants/292911/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/ignition-an-informal-history-of-liquid-rocket-propellants/292911.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Anda","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-23","2026-09-17",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",18,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What does the opening section emphasize about ignition test firing?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It contrasts what a test firing should look like with how the same test cell may look if something goes wrong.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"Who is John D. Clark in the document?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"John D. Clark is the central figure whose friend and colleague the narrator describes meeting and learning from.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"How does the narrator characterize liquid rocket propellants?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"The narrator portrays them as exceptionally volatile and dangerous chemicals, combining many dreadful properties into a single hazardous category.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},292911,1790732909,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":145,"read_time":146,"preview_page_count":4},962075006959,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/e0002397efbe92a78e?_k=1776741047341049297","IGNITION!  \nU.S.Navy photoThis is what a test firing should look like.Note the mach diamonds in the ex-haust stream.  \nU.S.Navy photoAnd this is what it may look like if something goes wrong.The same test cell,or its remains,is shown.  \nIGNITION!An Informal History ofLiquid Rocket Propellantsby John D.Clark  \nThose who cannot remember the past are condemned torepeat it.  \nGeorge Santayana  \nThis book is dedicated to my wife Inga,whoheckled me into writing it with such wifely re-marks as,\"You talk a hell of a fine history.Nowset yourself down in front of the typewriter-and write the damned thing!”  \nIn Re John D.Clark  \nby Isaac Asimov  \nI first met John in 1942 when I came to Philadelphia to live.Oh,Ihad known of him before.Back in 1937,he had published a pair ofscience fiction shorts,\"Minus Planet\"and \"Space Blister,\"which hadlit me right between the eyes.The first one,in particular,was thecarliest science fiction story I know of which dealt with “anti-matter”in realistic fashion.  \nApparently,John was satisfied with that pair and didn't write anymore s.f.,kindly leaving room for lesser lights like myself.  \nIn 1942,therefore,when I met him,I was ready to be awed.John,lowever,was not ready to awe.He was exactly what he has alwaysbeen,completely friendly,completely self-unconscious,completelyliinself  \nHe was my friend when I needed friendship badly.America hadjust entered the war and I had come to Philadelphia to work for theNavy as a chemist.It was my first time away from home,ever,and Iwas barely twenty-two.I was utterly alone and his door was alwaysopen to me.I was frightened and he consoled me.I was sad and heclcered me.  \nFor all his kindness,however,he could not always resist the impulseto take advantage of a greenhorn.  \nF,very wall of his apartment was lined with books,floor to ceiling,a1d he loved displaying them to me.He explained that one wall wasdevotcd to fiction,one to histories,one to books on military affairsand so on.  \nIn Re John D.Clark  \nX  \n\"Here,\"he said,\"is the Bible.\"Then,with a solemn look on hisface,he added,\"I have it in the fiction section,you'll notice,under  \nJ.”  \n“Why J?”I asked.  \nAnd John,delighted at the straight line,said,“J for Jehovah!”  \nBut the years passed and our paths separated.The war ended andI returned to Columbia to go after my PhD(which John had alreadyearned by the time I first met him)while he went into the happy busi-ness of designing rocket fuels.  \nNow it is clear that anyone working with rocket fuels is outstand-  \ningly mad.I don't mean garden-variety crazy or a merely raving luna-  \ntic.I mean a record-shattering exponent of far-out insanity.  \nThere are,after all,some chemicals that explode shatteringly,somethat flame ravenously,some that corrode hellishly,some that poisonsneakily,and some that stink stenchily.As far as I know,though,onlyliquid rocket fuels have all these delightful properties combined intoone delectable whole.  \nWell,John Clark worked with these miserable concoctions and sur-vived all in one piece.What's more he ran a laboratory for seventeenyears that played footsie with these liquids from Hell and never hada time-lost accident.  \nMy own theory is that he made a deal with the Almighty.In returnfor Divine protection,John agreed to take the Bible out of the fictionsection.  \nSo read this book.You'll find out plenty about John and all theother sky-high crackpots who were in the field with him and you mayeven get(as I did)a glimpse of the heroic excitement that seemed tomake it reasonable to cuddle with death every waking moment-tosay nothing of learning a heck of a lot about the way in which thebusiness of science is really conducted.  \nIt is a story only John can tell so caustically well from the depthswithin.","cbCaij6GHkucXWYr","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaij6GHkucXWYr","pdf",3688461,233,"English","# Overview\n## Test Firing Context\n## John D. Clark and Personal Reflections\n## Rocket Fuels and Risk\n## Legacy and Purpose","[{\"question\":\"What does the opening section emphasize about ignition test firing?\",\"answer\":\"It contrasts what a test firing should look like with how the same test cell may look if something goes wrong.\"},{\"question\":\"Who is John D. Clark in the document?\",\"answer\":\"John D. Clark is the central figure whose friend and colleague the narrator describes meeting and learning from.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the narrator characterize liquid rocket propellants?\",\"answer\":\"The narrator portrays them as exceptionally volatile and dangerous chemicals, combining many dreadful properties into a single hazardous category.\"}]","Ignition - An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants | PDF",1789657538,587]