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RR Merlin books


Bozothenutter

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Graham Hoyland:

Only read about a third of it so far, haven't even gotten to the Merlin yet!

But so far, with all the sidesteps he makes, to sometimes the most tenuously linked stories, he has convinced me he (like me) has ADHD....🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

Edited by Bozothenutter
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On 8/4/2021 at 9:52 PM, FalkeEins said:

..in my to-read pile..

You might want to move it towards the bottom a bit.

While fun to read, it is more a history of Rolls-Royce, aviation and the battle of Britain.

Technical information is superficial at best, with only a two page description of a Merlin.

All in all a good primer in a non technical way.

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Oh boy...

"The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a glycol-based liquid-cooled V12, piston aero engine"

A glycol based engine?!?! Really?

I know what he means of course...😉

"Four gas passages lead outwards from the combustion chamber to the side of the head."

He might have been more specific here, two on one side, two on the other....

 

Dire need of some proofreading without prior knowledge. 

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Given that the Merlin underwent two if not three changes of the cooling fluid, it doesn't bode well for his overall knowledge of the engine anyway.  I think I'll stick with my RRHT books on the Merlin, and The Secret Horsepower Race

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Quote

 

About the Author

Climber, author and film director Graham Hoyland was the 15th Briton to climb Everest and during one of his nine expeditions to the mountain was responsible for the discovery of George Mallory’s body. He writes for the Independent newspaper and worked as a BBC director on programmes such as Dragons’ Den, the Today programme and Around the World in 80 Faiths.

 

 

Impeccable credentials to write a book on the Merlin!

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"Writes for a newspaper!?"

The mind boggles!

English is not my native language,  but to bragg, it is as good as my native dutch.

But the sentence construction is terrible!

I even get the feeling from the text where he had a long break between writing, it is where the next chapter starts with repeating the chapter before it....

I write a lot of manuals,  always start writing as if writing for your Mum, then remove content as necessary. 

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The full list of RRHT publications is here:

 

https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/about/the-rolls-royce-heritage-trust-book-list-19-march-2021.pdf

 

https://www.rolls-royce.com/about/heritage-trust

 

If your interest is Merlins, I'd recommend #2, #9 & #19, as well as the one mentioned above. Not sure if they post to NL, but if you want them I'd be happy to forward at cost. 

 

regards,

Jason

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the Gordon A.A.Wilson book is also not about the Merlin, but also the aircraft it was used in and how they were used.

Just repeating how essential the Merlin was does not make it about the Merlin......

Received 'The secret horsepower race' and a quick thumbthrough makes it look much more like my cup of tea! 

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'The secret horsepower race' is

INCREDIBLE!!!

The authors credentials are impeccable, the information is collated logically and explained in a understandable way.

The printing is lovely, with colour illustrations used where needed.

Only up to page 45 atm  but if you like engines in general GET THIS BOOK!

A lot of the tech is still used today and this book tells you where it saw the first light of day.

Only thing missing for me would be an analysis of the motives of some of the people that (unwittingly) held development back (dismissing fuel injection in the face of Ricardo's analysis fir example....)

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20 hours ago, Bozothenutter said:

'The secret horsepower race' is

INCREDIBLE!!!

The authors credentials are impeccable, the information is collated logically and explained in a understandable way.

The printing is lovely, with colour illustrations used where needed.

Only up to page 45 atm  but if you like engines in general GET THIS BOOK!

A lot of the tech is still used today and this book tells you where it saw the first light of day.

Only thing missing for me would be an analysis of the motives of some of the people that (unwittingly) held development back (dismissing fuel injection in the face of Ricardo's analysis fir example....)

Told You. It is pretty awesome I think. Elsewhere the author explained that it was a technical book and he'd leave other areas for other authors to cover. I understand your comment but honestly think the book is better without the finger pointing.

The Rolls-Royce books can be ordered from the site @JasonC linked to. If you can't get them shipped to the Netherlands direct PM me and I'll send them on for you. That said RRHT are pretty good in my experience (as they should be) and some of the members have unholy knowledge of company history, politics and people. If one of the books doesn't cover fuel injection already I'd bet they have an answer.

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