Engines and innovation: Lewis Laboratory and American Propulsion Technology (NASA SP)

Science & Math

Dawson, Virginia P.

Technology

For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S.G.P.O

NASA SP-2004-4230. NASA History Series. Chronicles the story of the Centaur, the world's first liquid-hydrogen rocket. Focuses on technical and political hurdles that Centaur faced over the three decades that it was managed by NASA Lewis Research Center. Explores NASA's effort to modify Centaur for launch from the Shuttle's cargo bay, a controversial project canceled in the wake of the Challenger accident.

Taming Liquid Hydrogen: The Centaur Upper Stage Rocket 1958-2002

Bowles, Mark D.

Astronomy & Space Science

Diane Pub Co.

In Iron Will: Cleveland-Cliffs and the Mining of Iron Ore, 1847--2006, Terry S. Reynolds and Virginia P. Dawson tell the story of Cleveland-Cliffs, the only surviving independent American iron mining company, now known as Cliffs Natural Resources. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland-Cliffs played a major role in the opening and development of the Lake Superior mining district and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Through Cleveland-Cliffs' history, Reynolds and Dawson examine major transitions in the history of the American iron and steel industry from the perspective of an important raw materials supplier.
Reynolds and Dawson trace Cleveland-Cliffs' beginnings around 1850, its growth under Samuel L. Mather and his son William G. Mather, its emergence as an important player in the growing national iron ore market, and its tribulations during the Great Depression. The authors explore the company's fortunes after World War II, when Cleveland-Cliffs developed technologies to tap into vast reserves of low-grade Michigan iron ore and turned to joint ventures and strategic partnerships to raise the capital needed to implement them. The authors also explain how the company became the largest independent producer of iron ore in the United States by purchasing the mining interests of its bankrupt partners during the implosion of the American steel industry in the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Reynolds and Dawson detail Cleveland-Cliffs' evolving efforts to deal with labor, from its early mostly immigrant workforce to its ambitious program of welfare capitalism in the early twentieth century to its struggles with organized labor after World War II. 
Iron Will is a thorough, well-organized history based on extensive archival research and interviews with company personnel. This story will appeal to scholars interested in industrial or mining history, business historians, and those interested in Great Lakes and Michigan history.

Iron Will: Cleveland-Cliffs and the Mining of Iron Ore, 1847-2006 (Great Lakes Books)

Business & Money

Reynolds, Terry S.

Biography & History

Wayne State University Press

Two striking discoveries made 1740 a turning point in the history of eighteenth-century biology. Charles Bonnet established that aphids could reproduce without male fertilization. Shortly afterwards Abraham Trembley proved that a tiny aquatic animal, the fresh water polyp, or hydra, could regenerate from cuttings like some plants. The discovery of the polyp was important because of the disturbing metaphysical issues it raised. In their letters written during the decade of the 1740s to Reaumur, the great French Academician, both Trembley and Bonnet referred to the polyp as an enigma. Not only did it seem to present a new mode of animal reproduction, previously unsuspected, but it called into question the prevailing mechanistic view of animal biology and brought into focus the problem of animal soul.

Nature's Enigma: The Problem of the Polyp in the Letters of Bonnet, Trembley and Reaumur (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

The American Philosophical Society Press

Lincoln Electric: A history

Lincoln Electric Co

This document was generated for the NASA Glenn Research Center, in accordance with a Memorandum of Agreement among the Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), The Ohio State Historic Preservation Officer, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The City of Cleveland’s goal to expand the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport required the NASA Glenn Research Center’s Rocket Engine Test Facility, located adjacent to the airport, to be removed before this expansion could be realized. To mitigate the removal of this registered National Historic Landmark, the National Park Service stipulated that the Rocket Engine Test Facility be documented to Level I standards of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). This history project was initiated to fulfill and supplement that requirement.

Ideas into Hardware: A History of the Rocket Engine Test Facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center: Engine Test Facility at the NASA Glenn Research CenterNational

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

During its maiden voyage in May 1962, a Centaur upper stage rocket, mated to an At l a sb o o s t e r, exploded 54 seconds after launch, engulfing the rocket in a huge fireball. In ve s t i g a t i o nre vealed that Centaur’s light, stainless-steel tank had split open, spilling its liquid-hyd rogen fueld own its sides, where the flame of the rocket exhaust immediately ignited it. Coming less thana year after President Kennedy had made landing human beings on the Moon a national p r i o r i t y, the loss of Centaur was regarded as a serious setback for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). During the failure investigation, Homer Newell, Di rector of Space Sciences, ruefully declared: “Taming liquid hydrogen to the point where expensive oper-ational space missions can be committed to it has turned out to be more difficult than anyone supposed at the outset.”

Taming Liquid Hydrogen: The Centaur: Upper Stage Rocket, 1958-2002

During its maiden voyage in May 1962, a Centaur upper stage rocket, mated to an Atlas booster, exploded 54 seconds after launch, engulfing the rocket in a huge fireball. Investigation revealed that Centaur’s light, stainless-steel tank had split open, spilling its liquid-hydrogen fuel down its sides, where the flame of the rocket exhaust immediately ignited it. Coming less than a year after President Kennedy had made landing human beings on the Moon a national priority, the loss of Centaur was regarded as a serious setback for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). During the failure investigation, Homer Newell, Director of Space Sciences, ruefully declared: “Taming liquid hydrogen to the point where expensive operational space missions can be committed to it has turned out to be more difficult than anyone supposed at the outset.” .After this failure, Centaur critics, led by Wernher von Braun, mounted a campaign to cancel the program. In addition to the unknowns associated with liquid hydrogen, he objected to the unusual design of Centaur. Like the Atlas rocket, Centaur depended on pressure to keep its paper thin, stainless-steel shell from collapsing. It was literally inflated with its propellants like a football or balloon and needed no internal structure to give it added strength and stability. The so-called “pressure-stabilized structure” of Centaur, coupled with the light weight of its high-energy cryogenic propellants, made Centaur lighter and more powerful than upper stages that used conventional fuel. But, the critics argued, it would never become the reliable rocket that the United States needed. Others, especially military proponents of Centaur, believed that accepting the challenge of developing liquid-hydrogen technology was an important risk to take. Despite criticism and early technical failures, the taming of liquid hydrogen proved to be one of NASA’s most significant technical accomplishments. Centaur not only succeeded in demonstrating the feasibility of liquid hydrogen as a rocket fuel, but it also went on to a brilliant career as an upper stage for a series of spectacular planetary missions in the 1970s. Ironically, this success did little to ensure the future of the Centaur rocket. Once the Shuttle became operational in the early 1980s, all expendable launch vehicles like Centaur were slated for termination. Centaur advocates fought to keep the program alive.

Taming Liquid Hydrogen: The Centaur Upper Stage Rocket, 1958-2002

History

Administration, National Aeronautics and Space

World

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