A Light History of Hot Air By Peter C. Doherty

Peter C. Doherty Ò 2 Download

A Light History of Hot Air

This book was given to me by a friend. Thankfully.

I say thankfully, because this kind of book appeals to my eclectic reading tastes, and if I had seen it in a bookshop, I most likely would have bought it...... and then regretted spending the money on it.

If you don't mind a rambling, undirected, waffling commentary on many topics which appear to be mostly unrelated to the actual supposed subject matter, then you may enjoy this book.

My general feelings towards the book is that it tended to go along the line of I want to discuss/ demonstrate how hot air has.... oh look, an elephant.

It started well, discussing the early flight of the Montgolfier brothers. Cool.

Then it diverted into a brief history of post colonial Australian explorations, with comparison to the Lewis and Clarke expedition in the USA. Interesting - but relevant?

Next came a chemistry lesson. Yes, I suppose a basic knowledge might be required to understand the chemical compounds of oxygen, helium and hydrogen and their relative safety of use in 'flying machines', when compared to hot air ballons.

There were an interesting few paragraphs where the inner workings of a steam engine are explained. Back to cool!

After that I started flicking through the thankfully very short chapters trying to find where he would stop digressing and actually focus on the matter at hand. There were a lot of semi-autobiographical statements and commentary, which again were not related to the subject matter.

I found this a very difficult book to focus upon, and sadly, what could have been an interesting collection of information, was just a collection of random information.

I was most excited when I received the book and most disappointed a few hours later when I realised that it did not even remotely meet any level of expectation. I persevered for a while, but ultimately, I couldn't finish the book. 9780522855234 Poorly written, poorly laid out, offering little in the way of science or learning this was an absolutely terrible book. 9780522855234 Light is the operational word. This is a trivial book. The history of hot-air ballooning is fascinating and could do with a readable history. You won't find that here. 9780522855234