Seeking a number of books

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pathology_doc

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I have some books in a series of monographs published by Temple Press in the 1960s entitled Temple Press Monographs on Rockets and Missiles. These are of interest because the general editor is Brig. John Clemow, who had a major role in the Vickers guided missile history as detailed by John Forbat.

The titles and authors are given as follows:

Short range guided weapons: J Clemow
Missile Guidance: J Clemow
Missile Control: G. A. Whitfield
Aerodynamics: T.R.F. Nonweiler
Solid Fuel Rocket Propulsion: J.E. Daboo
Ramjet Propulsion: J.R. Palmer
Telemetry: R.E. Young

EDIT 5 Sep 25: My copy of Solid Fuel Rocket Propulsion lists the author of Missile Control as H Surtees.

I am looking for the books in bold; I already have the ones in Italics.

Missile Guidance is quite an interesting and revealing little tome, because despite its publication date, it still discusses circuitry developed around wire-wound transformers, valves and potentiometers, and discussion of beam-riding weapons is a substantial slice of the book. "Still in the piston era" indeed!
 
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Vepr157 said:
@pathology_doc might it be worth trying an interlibrary loan? I've gotten some exceedingly obscure books using them.
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Good idea. Problem: I live in rural Canada. The nearest university library is a four hour drive away, and I'm not sure my local lending library has enough clout or reach.

Assuming I could surmount that, the next challenge would be to find libraries that actually have the relevant books in their collections (suggestions are welcome), but my first 'hit' for the titles is always this post.

At one point I was briefly in e-mail communication with John Forbat, and I'm sure he would have known where to find them since he knew Clemow personally... but that was ~20 years ago and AFAIK Forbat is no longer among the living. I did actually make a request to the Brooklands Museum to see if they have copies, but I have had no reply from them as yet.
 
pathology_doc said:
Assuming I could surmount that, the next challenge would be to find libraries that actually have the relevant books in their collections (suggestions are welcome), but my first 'hit' for the titles is always this post.
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Often (at least for universities) they have access to a system for locating books that's far more comprehensive than what I've been able to research myself. So that won't be a problem as long as some institution in the system has these books. For example, I searched for years for a Russian book that I only saw listed for sale on the Vladivostok Craigslist ("local pickup only," amusingly). It took a few months, but my university was able to get a (previously unknown to me) copy from offsite storage at the New York public library.

But yeah, living far from a university library might make things difficult. But maybe worth a try with your local library; perhaps they have connections to larger institutions that may be able to help.
 
Aye, the Clemow books last century but the missus is a university librarian, so she got them for me. As for ramjets, I had Roy Hawkins to ask.

Chris
 
CJGibson said:
Aye, the Clemow books last century but the missus is a university librarian, so she got them for me. As for ramjets, I had Roy Hawkins to ask.

Chris
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So I am one tantalizing step closer, yet as with the Greek legend, the water keeps receding from me the more I try to drink!!!

You know, if pdfs of the contents of the ones I don't have just happened to land in my inbox, that would be fine for now. ;) Ultimately, though, I do want to own physical copies.

Finding that some of these books have either two different authors listed (e.g. Missile Control is variously attributed to Whitfield or Surtees) or the same author's name spelled two ways (A Whitfield vs G A Whitfield) does NOT make things easier!
 
Have you tried the Royal Aeronautical Society library at Farnborough?

They hold sales of duplicate books so maybe if you ask nicely they'll look out for it. Whether they keep a wants list is unknown, but shy bairns get nowt.

Chris
 
CJGibson said:
Have you tried the Royal Aeronautical Society library at Farnborough?

They hold sales of duplicate books so maybe if you ask nicely they'll look out for it. Whether they keep a wants list is unknown, but shy bairns get nowt.

Chris
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I've given it a shot. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
@CJGibson - the RAeS library people got back to me. They don't have them, and most interestingly a search of the British Library catalogue failed to find them either. The librarian said that any book published in the UK should be there, which made him wonder if the missing books were planned but never published.

One of your previous replies seemed to imply that you did actually obtain and handle some or all of the missing volumes on inter-library loan at one point, so now it just gets even more perplexing!
 
Still looking! One of the books I do have came from the US Air Force research laboratory, so I contacted them today to see if they can tell me whether they ever had the missing ones.

Unfortunately the source of the others in my possession, the Royal Military College of Science, has since been folded into other organizations and no longer exists as a separate entity.
 
Update: Everyone I've e-mailed in Defence about the missing volumes who has emailed back cannot find them.

Fair enough - if they ever held them in stock, they have probably long since gone to the used book market and been deleted from holdings records, while the relevant library cards are in a landfill somewhere, quietly rotting.

My copy of "Telemetry" lists the ones I have and "Further titles in process". Curiously, it was printed in 1963, whereas the other volumes in my possession with the full list were printed earlier!!!! Or at least first printed earlier; the frontispieces do not detail whether any of them are reprints.
 
pathology_doc said:
Any update on that?
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Yup,

Checked the notes and Mrs CJ got me Kenneth Gatland's Development of the Guided Missile, dated 1954 (second edition) and Fire Across the Desert, which back then was like rocking horse droppings but I believe is available as a pdf.

Hi assume you've tried the RAF Museum at Hendon as well?

Chris
 
I think I may have Gatland's book. I read Fire Across the Desert when it was in my local library, but that was forty years ago. Although I do have the PDF, I'm waiting to find a second-hand print copy that's not going to leave my wallet feeling abused and violated.

I haven't tried Hendon yet. Some asking around indicates that RMCS got folded into Cranfield and their library only has volumes that I've already got. One of the printers that handled the work for Temple Press is still in existence and I e-mailed them yesterday.
 
The search continues.

It being (the aftermath of) Christmas, I raised the topic of this old familiar song to my wife:

There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories
Of Christmases long, long ago

I told her "I don't want to hear tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago. I want to hear about the glories of THIS Christmas, and three more slim blue-jacketed volumes under the tree."

Her reply: "You might have to go back to long, long ago to get them."

This witty repartee, delivered without the need to pause for thought, is the sort of thing I married her for. It's a pity I don't have a time machine; because if I did, I'd go back to 1964 or so and ask Clemow himself about it.
 

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