je gordon structures or why things don t fall down

Professor of Materials Technology at the University of Reading.Industrial Fellow Commoner at Churchill College, Cambridge.Gordon strips engineering of its confusing technical terms, communicating its founding principles in accessible, witty prose. Some of his discoveries are still applied in the construction of fibre-reinforced parts for aircraft and rockets. In a book that Business Insider noted as one of the '14 Books that inspired Elon Musk,' J.E. įrom 1962 he was head of a new branch at the Explosives Research and Development Establishment (ERDE), Waltham Abbey dealing with completely new structural materials. He designed the rescue dinghies for most bomber aircraft used in the war, and studied the strength and behaviour of reinforcement fibres made of glass, carbon, boron and other materials.Īfter the war he worked at Tube Investments (TI) at the Group Research Laboratory, Hinxton Hall, near Cambridge. During World War II he worked at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) here he studied composite materials, wooden aircraft, plastics and new materials of many types. Alright alright, I’ll ease up on the fawning. That rarely happens, especially for a piece of non-fiction. It started out as a good read, but the ending took it to a whole new level. Gordon graduated in naval architecture at Glasgow University. Holy cow, ‘Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down’ by J. James Edward Gordon (UK, 1913–1998) was one of the founders of materials science and biomechanics, and a well-known author of three books on structures and materials, which have been translated in many languages and are still widely used in schools and universities.

Je gordon structures or why things don t fall down