Book Jacket Text

The Boys' Book of Rockets: The author of A BOY AND A BATTERY, THE BOYS' BOOK OF MAGNETISM and others now takes up that newest and most facinating of scientific developments, the rocket. He tells, in stories of real adventure, of scientists' first attempts to reach the sky, of the often dangerous experiments and discoveries leading up to the fund of knowledge with which contemporary scientists are now working. He explains, in his clear, easy style, the facts and principles of rocket combustion and propulsion, illustrating them abundantly with diagrams. He explores the problems of rocket flight yet to be overcome-- how the "big push" through the earth's atmosphere and out of the hold of our gravity may be made, how the courses of rocket ships will be calculated for flight to the moon, for instance-- and gives the young reader some eye-opening probabilities, of this fantastic rocket ship of the future. (from the 1947 dust jacket)

The Conquest of Space: We are entering the third astronomical era, when planets can be visited. In the first era, they were observed by the naked eye; in the second by the telescope. In The Conquest of Space the collaborators portray in text and pictures the universe our children may some day visit. To mention just a few places on the itinerary, we visit the mountains of the moon, Venus and other planets. We see Jupiter from its large moon, the landscapes of Mars, and a planet of the double star Mira. We get a picture of the earth as it will look to the people making their first lunar trip. And we view the devastating results should Manhattan be hit by a large meteorite--destruction worse than even the atom bomb could produce. Willy Ley, long passionately interested in space travel, author of the classic volume on rockets, has written the text and contributed line cuts. Chesley Bonestell's paintings are, writes Mr. Ley, "the product of a poetical mathematician with a paintbrush." Each section of text is followed by pages of parallel illustrations, together with full explanatory captions by the collaborators. There are forty-eight pages of illustrations, sixteen of them (plus the jacket) in full color. (from the 1949 dustjacket).

Across the Space Frontier is the story of the greatest adventure awaiting man--the conquest and exploration of space. This book is not a science-fictionist's dream, it is an accurate blueprint, prepared by some of the best scientific minds in the country, of how man can, within the short period of ten to fifteen years, reach beyond the atmosphere and establish a space station, 1075 miles above the earth. Such a man-made island in the sky can be either be the greatest force for peace ever devised or one of the most terrible weapons of war, depending on who builds and controls it. Here, clearly explained by a group of top scientists in the field of space research, is an exciting preview of what the conquest of space will mean to mankind. About half the present book appeared as a symposium in Collier's. (From the 1952 dust jacket).

The Real Book About Space Travel: High above the sky lies Space, the new frontier. A vast, boundless region which has forever mystified and intrigued the minds of man. Today, as never before, mankind is on the brink of its greatest adventure--interplanetary flight into the unknown universe. Why men want to go to Space, what they will find when they get there, what will happen to them when they do and how they will solve the problems of Space, are all excitingly described in detail in this absorbing book. Here is a facinating glance at the world of the near future; a world in which such expressions as escape velocity, nuclear reactors, space junk, asteroids, and intergalactic flight will be as common as automobiles and jet planes are today. The Real Book About Space Travel is filled with interesting information that will help people to distinguish between the possible and the impossible and tells them what they can expect of the future. It bridges the gap between fiction and fact and will make highly important reading for the science as well as the science-fiction fan. (From the 1952 dust jacket).

Journey to the Moon. "Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." When these astonishing words were first broadcast and later, on the evening of July 20, 1969, when man first stepped on the moon, many small children were either asleep or throughly bewildered. Now, in Journey to the Moon, a brilliant German painter has brought the strange wonder of the Apollo 11 mission within the reach and understanding of these younger children. Erich Fuchs, whose work has been compared with that of Paul Klee, captures each important event of the eight-day mission in space. In his beautiful paintings a child can relive again and again, the launching, the flight, the landing, and the return to Earth of the three astronauts. A brief, clear text explains the day-by-day progress of the mission (from the dust jacket).