Engineering & Technology
Gowing, Margaret | Britain and Atomic Energy
£650.00
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First editions, first impressions. The complete set of this important work by the foremost historian of Britain’s nuclear policy, together with the uncommon guide to the unpublished government papers cited in the first book, Britain and Atomic Energy 1939-1945. Rare in such nice condition.
Margaret Gowing (1921-1998) “was at once a distinguished historian and a redoubtable champion of a variety of causes that reflected her keen perception of what constituted the public interest. Her scholarly reputation rested primarily on her magisterial studies of atomic energy in Britain during and after the Second World War” (obituary in the Independent, November 20, 1998).
Gowing took a First in economic history at the London School of Economics in 1941, then held posts at the Ministry of Supply and Board of Trade, followed by the Cabinet Office, where she spent fourteen years as part of the team producing civil histories of the Second World War. In 1959 she joined the Atomic Energy Authority as historian and archivist.
“In Britain and Atomic Energy 1939-1945 (1964) and its two-volume sequel, Independence and Deterrence (1974, written with the assistance of her friend and collaborator Lorna Arnold), she offered a characteristically clear-eyed account of the fashioning and implementation of British policy with regard to atomic energy from the outbreak of the war until October 1952, when "Hurricane" - the test of a rather primitive bomb at Monte Bello, a group of islands off the north-west coast of Australia - propelled Britain to the status of the world's third nuclear power.
These books, along with her many articles, major public lectures, and penetrating reviews, established her not merely as a peerless chronicler and analyst of a crucial facet of the war effort and of Britain's subsequent struggles to maintain great power status, but also as a leading commentator on the relations between science and government. Her election first to the British Academy in 1975 and 13 years later to the Royal Society recognised equally the quality and the breadth of her work and placed her, with Sir Karl Popper and Joseph Needham, among the tiny handful of those who have been Fellows of both bodies” (the Independent).
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Britain and Atomic Energy 1939-1945 [together with] Britain and Atomic Energy: Independence and Deterrence 1945-1952, volume I Policy Making, and volume II Policy Execution [and] References to Official Papers, July 1980. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. & the Authority Historian’s Office, 1964, 1974 & 1980.
Britain and Atomic Energy 1939-1945: Octavo. Original red cloth, titles to spine in copper on black ground and in gilt. With the dust jacket that is price-clipped and has contemporary Macmillan price tickets to the front flap. Cloth only very lightly rubbed at the extremities, a little spotting to the top edge of the text block, minor creasing to the lower corner of the prefatory leaves. An excellent, fresh copy in the price-clipped jacket that is a little rubbed, toned, and creased along the edges.
Britain and Atomic Energy 1939-1945: References to Official Papers: 32-page photocopied pamphlet, wire-stitched, in green wrappers printed in black. Fine condition.
Britain and Atomic Energy 1945-1952: Independence and Deterrence, volume I: Original dark blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, blue endpapers and top edge. Corners bumped, spine slightly rolled, short closed tears affecting the margin of pages 97-100. An excellent copy in the jacket that is lightly rubbed along the edges.
Britain and Atomic Energy 1945-1952: Independence and Deterrence, volume 2: Original dark blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, blue endpapers and top edge. Corners bumped, spine slightly rolled. An excellent copy in the jacket that is lightly rubbed along the edges. 4 double-sided plates from photographs in each of the three primary volumes.
Pagé, Victor W. (ed.) | Henley's ABC of Gliding and Sailflying
£100.00
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First UK edition, originally published in the US in the previous year. An attractive copy and uncommon in the jacket.
The earliest successful glider was created by the British aeronautical designer Sir George Cayley and flown in 1853, initiating a wave of research into both unpowered and powered flight, and gliders had become relatively sophisticated by the time the Wright Brothers flew the first powered aircraft in 1903. It wasn’t until the 1920s, however, that gliding became an organised sport, making this an early popular guide for the beginner. Heavily illustrated, it contains information on the mechanics of flight; the different types of gliders, including powered gliders and water gliders; glider design and construction; and detailed chapters on key components such as brakes, control cables, fuselage, and wing frames.
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London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1931.
Duodecimo. Original blue cloth, title to spine gilt, publisher’s logo to upper bard in blind. With the dust jacket. Photographic frontispiece, illustrations throughout the text. Ownership inscription dated 1943 to the front free endpaper. Cloth very lightly rubbed at the extremities but otherwise bright and fresh, faint partial toning to the endpapers, faint spotting to the endpapers and edges of text block. An excellent copy in the rubbed and tanned jacket with some spots and marks and an over-price ticket to the spine panel.
Webb, James E. | Space Age Management. The Large-Scale Approach.
£850.00
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First edition, first printing and rare in commerce.
James E. Webb (1906-1996) was NASA’s second administrator and arguably its most significant, seeing the agency through the Mercury and Gemini programs and the preparation for the Apollo missions. This volume is based on a series of lectures given at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in 1968, and discusses Webb’s experience of leading one of the largest and most complex organisations ever established. It explores why traditional management systems were no longer sufficient for modern technological undertakings, describes new methods pioneered by NASA, and asks that government and private companies invest in research on new organisational models.
To Webb, “the space program was more than a political race. He believed that NASA had to strike a balance between human space flight and science because such a combination would serve as a catalyst for strengthening the nation's universities and aerospace industry... Webb's vision of a balanced program resulted in a decade of space science research that remains unparalleled today. During his tenure, NASA invested in the development of robotic spacecraft, which explored the lunar environment so that astronauts could do so later, and it sent scientific probes to Mars and Venus, giving Americans their first-ever view of the strange landscape of outer space. As early as 1965, Webb also had written that a major space telescope, then known as the Large Space Telescope, should become a major NASA effort. By the time Webb retired just a few months before the first moon landing in July 1969, NASA had launched more than 75 space science missions to study the stars and galaxies, our own Sun and the as-yet unknown environment of space above the Earth's atmosphere. Missions such as the Orbiting Solar Observatory and the Explorer series of astronomical satellites built the foundation for the most successful period of astronomical discovery in history, which continues today”. Webb also “enhanced the role of scientists in key ways. He gave them greater control in the selection process of science missions and he created the NASA University Program, which established grants for space research, funded the construction of new laboratories at universities and provided fellowships for graduate students” (”Who is James Webb?”, NASA James Webb Space Telescope website).
Webb’s legacy has been complicated by allegations that at the State Department and NASA he played a leading role in the lavender scare, in which hundreds of gay personnel were fired from the federal government. In 2021 four astronomers published an op-ed in Scientific American requesting the renaming of the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope, but NASA administrators announced that an inquiry into Webb’s actions determined it was unlikely he had played a key role in the firings and the name would be kept.
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New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.
Octavo. Original brick red cloth, titles to spine and upper board in white with black accents. With the dust jacket. A handful of lightly pencilled check marks in the margins. Spine rolled, cloth lightly rubbed at the edges, thin dark mark on the lower board. A very good copy in the rubbed jacket with faded spine panel and some wear and tiny nicks at the edges.