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What are you looking to read?

  • 1.  What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-08-2022 15:34
    Have you ever looked for information about a particular subject and wished there was more written about it? Do you think more books should be written about a particular subject matter?

    Reply here with suggestions.


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    Karen Marken
    ASM Employee
    ASM International
    Materials Park OH
    (440) 338-5453
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  • 2.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-08-2022 15:48

    Karen

    I have in the past looked for information on mechanical testing and microstructural analysis of materials. While different books have the fundamental knowledge regarding various test methods and analysis techniques. There is hardly any information on how to analyze the data from various techniques. 
    So a book/ series on data analysis would be helfpul, particularly for people in the starting phase of their careers. 

    Regards

    Rajan



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    Rajan Bhambroo
    Materials Engineer
    Tenneco Inc
    Plymouth MI
    7346600894
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  • 3.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-09-2022 08:48
    How about a thriller where the hero is an engineer who uses their technical skills to save the day? Or comics: who says the Man of Steel can't be a metallurgist?

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    Aaron Tanzer
    Senior Metallurgical Engineer
    Metallurgical & Materials Technologies
    Baton Rouge LA
    (407) 247-9557
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  • 4.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-10-2022 00:56
    Aaron,

    This is pure genius. There are some, but not recently. 
    I think it would be a great way to promote being a materials engineer. I discovered engineering with McGyver in the time and nothing has come close to that since.

    Are there people here that would be ready to think about this? 
    I'd be willing.

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    Veronique Vitry
    UMONS
    MONS
    +32.496.89.71.94
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  • 5.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-10-2022 09:01
    Veronique,

    I think it would be a hit. The reboot of McGyver a few years ago was popular (though it did not emphasize science and engineering as much as the original).

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    Aaron Tanzer
    Senior Metallurgical Engineer
    Metallurgical & Materials Technologies
    Baton Rouge LA
    (407) 247-9557
    ------------------------------

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  • 6.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-11-2022 02:08
    re: Aaron's comment about an engineer who uses technical skills to be the hero, well the MacGyver shows are general science, physics and chemistry coming to the rescue.  In the various incarnations of Star Trek the various chief engineers often contribute to victory.  And there were even a couple of episodes that refer to Metallurgy/metallurgical analysis - I almost squeaked when they would mention our field!  8-)

    In comics, there was a series of comics called The Metal Men, who were robots developed by a genius engineer.  Each robot was largely made of and exhibited the properties of a specific metal.  I can recall for sure that there were Os, Hg, Fe, Ag, Au, Pt, and I think there were a couple more.  This was late 1960's or early 1970's IIRC.  The robots battle various foes and the outcomes are determined by their clever use of the specific properties of the metals: Mercury can flow, Gold has almost unlimited ductility/drawability, Osmium is extra massive/dense, etc.  Pretty geeky stuff!

    There's a particularly applicable series of science fiction books that starts with The Cross-Time Engineer, by Leo Frankowski.  The premise is that a modern engineer finds himself accidentally thrown irreversibly back in time to the Middle Ages and starts "inventing" many pieces of modern technology and, importantly, the infrastructure needed to produce that tech.  Since he was stuck there/then, his goal became to give his native Poland the ability to defend itself in an upcoming war (which he knows about from history class) and to have Poland become a world-leading power.  It was quite readable, and there are several follow-up volumes.  I was ready to be critical but the technology seemed quite accurate and Frankowski's knowledge was in depth and included some metallurgy and a lot of other areas of engineering.  The social observations were reasonable and feasible enough, and the writing was up to the task though Frankowski wasn't a top-tier author, in my opinion of course.  I'd recommend reading the first one and seeing if you want to finish the series.

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    Paul Tibbals
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  • 7.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-11-2022 03:15
    Paul, 

    I think you're missing the point. 

    Of course there's fiction about engineers but how long has it been since something new has come up?

    What I (and probably Aaron) am thinking about is something new, that can thrill today's youngsters by showing them the wonders on materials engineering and the huge progress that was made in the last 30 years or so.

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    Veronique Vitry
    UMONS
    MONS
    +32.496.89.71.94
    ------------------------------

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  • 8.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-12-2022 08:08
    The science fiction book Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold is about an engineer who is modeled on her father and brother (James McMaster, a welding engineer). It's not new (1988), so perhaps we need some new examples.

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    John Grubb
    consultant
    New Kensington PA
    (724) 448-5272
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  • 9.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-12-2022 09:39
    My decision to become a metallurgist was at least partially influenced by the fact that metallurgy is briefly mentioned in the movie Ghostbusters, which I was obsessed with as a child (and somewhat as an adult).

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    Ken Kirby
    Snap-on, Inc.
    Kenosha WI
    (262) 748-3836
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  • 10.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-12-2022 11:22
    Thanks Paul!

    Found Leo Frankowski on Baen Books -
    Conrad Stargard: The Radiant Warrior
    and the ebook for $10 is a steal - in 2022 dollars it is less than a comic book cost in 1960.

    Yesterday I read this thread and thought about mentioning E.E. Smith, who was a Chemical Engineer, who wrote the Galactic Patrol series, the Skylark of Space series, Spacehounds of IPC, and others - he is on gutenberg.org for free - because his work strongly influenced my childhood and later, career.  But as Veronique pointed out, that was then and this is the 21st century not the 20th.

    In grad school I started to write a story, the protagonist of which was a Metallurgy student, who rode a Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, was responsible (self-assigned task) for the care and feeding of all the campus stray cats, and whose chance romance with a Chemical Engineering student resulted in a workable cold-fusion reaction (she was brilliant, he was just dogged).  Alas!  I can not write worth a hoot so the story languished and probably just as well - they were good kids, and the societal repercussions of their discovery would have chewed them up good.

    Anyway thanks for Frankowski, and I heartily recommend looking at the Free Library on Baen.com as it is a path to discovering authors one might enjoy, at zero cost (until you find one you like...)

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    Andrew Werner
    Chief Metallurgist, Perforating - Retired
    Schlumberger - Retired
    East Bernard TX
    (832) 563-3489
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  • 11.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-12-2022 09:56
    Ghostbusters is great. I didn't catch their reference to metallurgy and will watch for it next time. Any science fiction Isaac Asimov wrote is great, especially The Foundation Trilogy. He also wrote non fiction science. Does anyone have any favorite handbooks they would recommend? I'm a collector of them

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    John Cline
    Asset Performance Manager
    Evansville IN
    (812) 867-2278
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  • 12.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-12-2022 10:36
    It's just a passing reference. When the guys are in jail and are talking about the architectural oddities of Dana Barrett's apartment building, Bill Murray's character, Peter, says something like, "Pretend I don't know anything about metallurgy or engineering and just tell me what's going on." (not exact quote but close).

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    Ken Kirby
    Snap-on, Inc.
    Kenosha WI
    (262) 748-3836
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  • 13.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-12-2022 10:43
    Got it. Thanks

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    John Cline
    Asset Performance Manager
    Evansville IN
    (812) 867-2278
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  • 14.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-14-2022 19:59

    You might be interested in the techno-thriller novel Perilous Panacea by Ronald Klueh, a Metallurgist/Materials Scientist (I know the author).  Read more about the book here.

     

    Order paperback from Savant Books and Publications and get 10% off (Coupon Code: ONLINE) and free shipping.  Also available at Amazon (Kindle and Paperback) and Barnes & Noble.

     

     

    The following is from the back cover of the book.

     

    Despite repeated assurances by the U.S. Department of Energy that security of weapons-grade nuclear material is invulnerable, Perilous Panacea describes how that security is breached by a computer wizard.  Bankrolled by Iranians, enough plutonium and weapons-grade uranium is stolen to manufacture more-than ten atomic bombs. To manufacture the bombs, an expatriate Iranian nuclear engineer is blackmailed and two American scientists-a metallurgist and a chemist-are kidnapped. Chaos in the Washington corridors of power hinders the FBI pursuit of the missing nuclear material.  For a nuclear catastrophe to be prevented, the scientists know they must escape … escape or die.

     



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    Ronald Klueh
    Knoxville TN
    (865) 927-0359
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  • 15.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-17-2022 09:43

    Thank you all for adding to my (already very large) reading list.

    And specifically to Ronald, for the book he wrote.
    I really think we should see more of those. This is how vocations are created.

    I'm still on if someone wants to co-write something with me.

    And if you've got the occasion, watch the tv series 'Titanic : blood and steel'. The main protagonist is the shipwards metallurgist and there's a few nice scenes about metallurgy/metallography in that. 



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    Veronique Vitry
    UMONS
    MONS
    +32.496.89.71.94
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  • 16.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-18-2022 08:53
    I'm also looking forward to reading Ronald's novel!

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    Aaron Tanzer
    Senior Metallurgical Engineer
    Metallurgical & Materials Technologies
    Baton Rouge LA
    (407) 247-9557
    ------------------------------

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  • 17.  RE: What are you looking to read?

    Posted 08-23-2022 00:26
    I am Deepak Saxena & a graduate in metallurgy. I am having around 33 years experience in Heat Treatment of steel. Now I am looking forward to review lean management in Heat Treatment of steel i.e. can we process different grades together in one batch or can we process different case depth requirement in single batch in sealed quench furnace 
    and so on. This is a need of time as cost is increasing and many times, we don't have sufficient load to make a full batch.Need your comments on the same.
    Regards 



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