THE LIBRARY—REVIEWS 135
being about the Moon, Venus, Mars, other planets, and equation including gravity loss and also the advantage
lastly, interplanetary matter.
The Moon is tackled by two geologists, who go a sur-
prisingly long way to writing a manual for survival tech-
niques after landing upon the Moon. The isolation of
lunar water, heat and power sources, and "living off the
country" are described in 112 pages of detail.
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As might be expected, the chapter by Patrick Moore
and S. W. Greenwood is well written and imaginative,
allowing for the meagre astronomical facts available. This
lack of data makes Venus an important astronautical
objective. The 146-day minimum energy trajectory from
Earth to Venus is derived, and a table of possible dates
starting with January 1961, August 1962, March 1964, and
so on, is given. Orbits to bring the vehicle back to the
Earth are considered.
The chapter on Mars as an astronautical objective, by
Hess, examines the Martian weather and atmosphere, and
discusses re-entry, or more pendantically, entry, into the
Martian atmosphere.
Newburn emphasises the need to supplement Astronomy
by sending probes to explore Mercury, the asteroids, Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto. A landing on Titan, the largest satel-
lite of Saturn, is advocated.
After a brief chapter on "Interplanetary matter," there
is a major chapter on "Structures of Carrier and Space
Vehicles" by Alberi and Rosenkranz. This will be of inter-
est to the designers of supersonic aeroplanes, as it deals
with thermal stresses, both on leaving and re-entering the
atmosphere, and fail-safe designs for thermal loadings on
pressurised manned capsules.
The chapter on advanced nuclear and solar propulsion
systems is in the nature of a guide to the extensive litera-
ture, and the anthology concludes with a short chapter on
weightlessness.
This is essentially a book of reference, rather than a
book to read as a coherent whole.—w. F. HILTON.
FUNDAMENTALS OF ROCKET PROPULSION.
Raymond E. Wiech, Jr. and Robert F. Strauss. Reinhold
Space Technology Series. Reinhold Publishing Corpora-
tion, New York. 1960. 135 pp. Illustrated 44s.
This volume is the first of the Reinhold Space Tech-
nology Series. It was written by the editors of the series
who observed a deficiency in the existing literature, and
following the modern trend, did it for themselves. Their
aim and intention is best quoted from the Introduction:
" . . . . the rocket should be of interest to all persons who
are concerned with the world in which they live. This
book has been written for all such persons. . . . every effort
has been made to base all technical matters on the assump-
tion that the reader has a high school background in
mathematics and physics."
Within the compass of 130 pp. they have faced a difficult
problem of material selection, rejection, and presentation.
After the first short historical chapter, the next three
chapters cover reaction propulsion in terms of the Second
and Third Laws of Motion, painless " thermodynamics "
from ideal gas laws to combustion and, finally, nozzle flow.
With frequent recourse to simple examples, we are led
sometimes smartly—sometimes by jumps—from Newton
to the full gas-dynamic equations for exhaust velocity and
nozzle thrust coefficient. At the end of each of these
chapters, and so on throughout the book, is an excellent
short selection of supplementary reading.
The next chapter, with but one equation, describes the
liquid-propellant engine system. Via pressurisation we are
directed through simple drawings of pressure regulators,
and solenoid valve to pumps, turbines and sequential
operations. There follows an equally pertinent exposition
on the solid-propellant engine. Here we are presented with
propellant types, performance, and burning rate, grain
design, processing and the hardware.
There is a chapter with further examples, which, by
logical inference, derives the vehicle velocity increment
obtained by staging. Finally, a brief description of some
rocket engines of the future is presented without a men-
tion of solar power.
Obviously the value of this book will depend on its
technical accuracy, and on how closely the authors are
able to fulfil their original aim of simplicity. This reviewer
finds very little wrong as far as accuracy is concerned, but
finds the treatment very uneven. In some places the sub-
ject as presented is within easy comprehension of the
intended readers, but at others it strays into a highly com-
pressed style which would be efficient in a text book.
Finally, as a warning to some, the units are fairly
consistently Slug-ish Fahrenheit, but the treatment is casual
rather than rigorous as the following example illustrates: —
" The units of specific impulse are lb. force divided by
lb. weight per second. This is abbreviated as lbf sec/lbm.
Although pounds mass and pounds force are not the same,
in many cases equality is assumed . . " (p. 24.)—D. s. CARTON.
FLEXURAL VIBRATIONS OF ROTATING SHAFTS.
F. M. Dimentberg. Butterworths, London, 1961. 243 pp.
Diagrams. 60s.
This book represents a very important addition to the
range of textbooks available, not a very wide range in any
case, dealing with the whirling and transverse vibration
of rotating shafts. It has been translated from the Russian
by the Production Engineering Research Association, and
represents the present thoughts, or at least a number of
them, within the U.S.S.R. on this subject.
In accordance with the present-day trend for high speeds
in rotating machinery, a shaft could be running at a speed
above its critical value, this by definition being a high-
speed shaft. At the critical speed, transverse vibrations
of large amplitude arise and an analysis of the operation
of the shaft would involve a knowledge of the operation in
the critical and post-critical range, the determination of
the critical speed, and some assessment of the stability.
The author sets out to investigate these problems both
from a theoretical and experimental point of view, and he
certainly achieves his object. The book is divided into
eleven chapters, the first four of which deal in turn with
the fundamental propositions concerning transverse vibra-
tion, the vibrations of a shaft with residual unbalance, the
operation of an unstable shaft through a critical speed,
and the vibrations of a shaft with concentrated and distri-
buted masses. Further chapters analyse the method of
"dynamic rigidity," natural and forced vibrations of a
shaft with dissimilar lateral moments of inertia, the effect
of shear deformation on shaft vibration and a chapter
giving experimental data for the measurement of stresses in
rotors and the vibrations of their supports.
As previously mentioned, the book is backed by experi-
mental evidence, but it makes two assumptions (theoretical)
which are borne out by the experimental conditions and
evidence. First, only a linear treatment of the problem
is given, and second it is assumed that the effect of torque
is small. Surprisingly, it makes no reference to the effect
of bearing clearance on shaft whirling.
Priced at £3 the book, in my opinion, represents good
value for money, and should be of very great use to
designers, stressmen, and research workers concerned with
the dynamic behaviour of rotating shafts.—J. H. DUNMORE.
CORRECTION TO JANUARY JOURNAL, p. 59
LA MECANIQUE DU VOL—Performance des Avions
et des Engins. L. George and J. F. Vernet. The Editor
regrets that the translation of the title of this book, re-
viewed by R. HADEKEL in the January 1961 JOURNAL
{pp. 59-60) was unfortunately misprinted as "Mechanics of
Flight—Performance of Aircraft and Engines." It should
have read "—Performance of Aircraft and Missiles."