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Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide? (1977) [pdf] (sciencemadness.org)
89 points by keenerd on Oct 30, 2014 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments



These are the memoirs of Max Gergel, a chemical engineer who graduated in 1940. If you enjoy the "Things I Will Not Work With" series you will probably like this. All in all it was light and enlightening reading. Some of the topics covered:

How to acquire chemicals as a poor high school student.

How to get the most out of college.

Starting up a company, finding your first customers and expanding your markets.

Being a supplier to the Manhattan Project.

What chemical engineering was like before the EPA and OSHA.

What went on to create a future Superfund site.

The tricks and techniques of traveling salesmen in the '50s.

A note to linux users: Poppler has a lot of trouble with the PDF. Mupdf will drop the occasional half page. Xpdf was the only engine that could render the whole thing flawlessly.


No problems so far in evince.


Evince worked well for me as well, when Firefox's built-in reader couldn't render it.


If anyone wants to report an issue: https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/issues


somewhat related: ignition! http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf - everything you wanted to know about liquid rocket fuels. foreword by asimov.


Highly recommended. Perfect for a flight or train trip




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