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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
This book is oddly excellent. I read it 3+ years ago and still get excited whenever topics adjacent book chapters come up. Cans, the Statue of Liberty and trans Alaskan pipelines may not be normal everyday conversation but I thank Rust for bringing excitement to that which seems mundane or annoying.
While I would recommend to anyone who thinks maybe they can enjoy a book about rust (you can, so long as it is this book), I recommend for any current or soon to be engineering/business students. Relevant stuff!
While I would recommend to anyone who thinks maybe they can enjoy a book about rust (you can, so long as it is this book), I recommend for any current or soon to be engineering/business students. Relevant stuff!
This was a great topic for a book. The author sort of meandered through the topic. The most interesting part to me was the section on how aluminum cans are made. The section on how they manage rust in the Alaska oil pipeline was also interesting. Less interesting were the sections about the Department of Defense's program to manage corrosion and a photographer who photographs rust.
This is the authors first book and it showed. He tried way too hard at times. He went out of the way to discuss mustaches or lack there of on everyone he met or discussed.
I'm terrified that all the bridges I drive over are moments away from collapsing as a result of our failure to manage corrosion as a country.
This is the authors first book and it showed. He tried way too hard at times. He went out of the way to discuss mustaches or lack there of on everyone he met or discussed.
I'm terrified that all the bridges I drive over are moments away from collapsing as a result of our failure to manage corrosion as a country.
It is infrastructure week, my dudes, and the state of America's infrastructure is... well, perennially a D from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Rust isn't exactly the sexist topic. Waldman does his best to jazz it up by finding the human interest stories behind corrosion.
Rust abstract by photographer Alyssha Eve Csuk, who is the subject of one chapter
The story opens with the Statue of Liberty, which was revealed to be literally rusting to bits after a pair of Leftist protestors climbed it in the early 1980s. The book lurches around various topics, but finds its form at the end in a detailed study of Dan Dunmire, a Pentagon official and Star Trek fanatic who became Director of Corrosion Policy and Oversight, and along with trying to eliminate the $30 billion in defense related losses due to corrosion, got LeVar Burton to narrate a series of videos on corrosion to raise awareness about this pervasive menace. A long chapter on using a high-tech sensor laden pig to inspect the Trans-Alaska Pipeline is a delicious exploration of technical excellence under harsh conditions.
The individual stories are interesting, but shy away from the hard technical issues that Waldman discusses, but doesn't have the scholarly chops to full explore (no hostility intended, he's a fine journalist, but not a technical or policy expert). While rust is omnipresent and costs billions of dollars, the practical fight against rust falls into gaps in procurement and maintenance, and particularly in scientific and engineering training. Most engineers will receive a single lecture on corrosion in their education.
Mastering corrosion means a better world, full of things which work better with less human attention, and which also fade away gracefully once we're done with them, rather than scattering litter across the Earth.
Rust abstract by photographer Alyssha Eve Csuk, who is the subject of one chapter
The story opens with the Statue of Liberty, which was revealed to be literally rusting to bits after a pair of Leftist protestors climbed it in the early 1980s. The book lurches around various topics, but finds its form at the end in a detailed study of Dan Dunmire, a Pentagon official and Star Trek fanatic who became Director of Corrosion Policy and Oversight, and along with trying to eliminate the $30 billion in defense related losses due to corrosion, got LeVar Burton to narrate a series of videos on corrosion to raise awareness about this pervasive menace. A long chapter on using a high-tech sensor laden pig to inspect the Trans-Alaska Pipeline is a delicious exploration of technical excellence under harsh conditions.
The individual stories are interesting, but shy away from the hard technical issues that Waldman discusses, but doesn't have the scholarly chops to full explore (no hostility intended, he's a fine journalist, but not a technical or policy expert). While rust is omnipresent and costs billions of dollars, the practical fight against rust falls into gaps in procurement and maintenance, and particularly in scientific and engineering training. Most engineers will receive a single lecture on corrosion in their education.
Mastering corrosion means a better world, full of things which work better with less human attention, and which also fade away gracefully once we're done with them, rather than scattering litter across the Earth.
If you like John McPhee you will like this. Very good!
I look at everything differently now. Fantastic read!
What a good book. It's a very interesting subject and I really do have a new appreciation for rust.
OK, I am definitely biased, but I thought this book was fascinating. It covers things like the history of stainless steel, the Statue of Liberty (I slightly remember the penny drive, but grew up far away and wasn't really old enough to pay attention), cans, and the development of a corrosion strategy for the DoD. (That last confirming that my timing was terrible; just a little later and I would have been super in demand. Sigh.) It's all presented in nice chunks, so you don't have to read the whole thing in one go.
This is also perhaps the definitive treatise on the mustaches of folks involved with corrosion.
The author didn't get quite so "OMG, Science/Math is an impenetrable mystery!", which made it more palatable to me. My biggest problem was that there were, at times, too many names flying around. I'm less interested in the people, and I would've found a Dramatis Personae or similar helpful. But overall it was educational, well-written, and quite readable.
This is also perhaps the definitive treatise on the mustaches of folks involved with corrosion.
The author didn't get quite so "OMG, Science/Math is an impenetrable mystery!", which made it more palatable to me. My biggest problem was that there were, at times, too many names flying around. I'm less interested in the people, and I would've found a Dramatis Personae or similar helpful. But overall it was educational, well-written, and quite readable.
Excellent book about rust and how much if affects our lives. It is not too technical for a non-scientist/engineer to read, but covers enough technical information that a technical type should still enjoy it. I really enjoyed the historical aspect to each of these rust problems. Rust is the corrosion of iron, the book focuses on rust but also covers aluminum.
The chapters cover:
1) Statue of Liberty
2) History of iron and steel
3) Harry Brearly and story of stainless steel
4) Aluminum cans at the Ball company
5) Story of photographer at closed Bethlehem Steel plant
6) Story of Dan Dunmire and DoD office of corrosion policy
7) Galvanizing steel
8) NACE - National Association of Corrosion Engineers
9) Inspecting ("Pigging") the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)
10)Snake Oil and other corrosion prevention/removal/cleaning household products
Each of the chapters are interesting in their own right. The statue of libery story is a good start to cover how ignorant people can be about corrosion issues. The history is necessary and fascinating to me, but I could see how it might be boring to others. The aluminum can story is interesting and is the most shrouded in trade secrets and questionable health (BPA). The Bethlehem steel plant sounded interesting, but I think I'll need to see some of the pictures to appreciate that chapter. The story of the DoD starts as a head scratcher but becomes encouraging as you realize how much taxpayer money can be saved by this group. The galvanizing and NACE chapters are less interesting. I don't think the technical aspects of galvanizing were made interesting enough. The inspecting of the Alaska pipeline is very exciting, especially as the author follows it along live during the trip and tells the story well.
The chapters cover:
1) Statue of Liberty
2) History of iron and steel
3) Harry Brearly and story of stainless steel
4) Aluminum cans at the Ball company
5) Story of photographer at closed Bethlehem Steel plant
6) Story of Dan Dunmire and DoD office of corrosion policy
7) Galvanizing steel
8) NACE - National Association of Corrosion Engineers
9) Inspecting ("Pigging") the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)
10)Snake Oil and other corrosion prevention/removal/cleaning household products
Each of the chapters are interesting in their own right. The statue of libery story is a good start to cover how ignorant people can be about corrosion issues. The history is necessary and fascinating to me, but I could see how it might be boring to others. The aluminum can story is interesting and is the most shrouded in trade secrets and questionable health (BPA). The Bethlehem steel plant sounded interesting, but I think I'll need to see some of the pictures to appreciate that chapter. The story of the DoD starts as a head scratcher but becomes encouraging as you realize how much taxpayer money can be saved by this group. The galvanizing and NACE chapters are less interesting. I don't think the technical aspects of galvanizing were made interesting enough. The inspecting of the Alaska pipeline is very exciting, especially as the author follows it along live during the trip and tells the story well.
Such a fascinating premise destroyed by non-existent editing. The author is a journalist, and this is not a book about rust. It is 11 quirky news articles disguised as “chapters” that tangentially deal with rust but lean far too heavily on random asides that are trying to be too clever by half.
At first I thought the editor just had terrible taste. Then I got to the article…I’m sorry, the “chapter”…about the defense department’s rust ‘czar,’ saw that they had not bothered to take out or explain any of the inside-the-beltway technical jargon, and realized, “nope, they straight up just didn’t edit this book.” They didn’t waste their time. Don’t waste yours.
At first I thought the editor just had terrible taste. Then I got to the article…I’m sorry, the “chapter”…about the defense department’s rust ‘czar,’ saw that they had not bothered to take out or explain any of the inside-the-beltway technical jargon, and realized, “nope, they straight up just didn’t edit this book.” They didn’t waste their time. Don’t waste yours.