Article by John Ismay in the NY Times:
In my experience, when it comes to technical information, there are really just two kinds of bomb technicians. There's most of us, who are content to know enough about munitions to keep us out of trouble, but who depend heavily on technical data for support when confronted by unknown ordnance. Then there are those rare technicians who love the intricate details of munitions variants and fuzes; and who can name the most obscure bits of ordnance trivia, and happily argue incessantly over details.
Practical Military Ordnance Identification, Second Edition, is a book for the rest of us. It provides a common sense, systematic method for people confronted by unknown ordnance (and without access to professional military assistance and technical publications) to help them identify what they have and how to deal with it safely.
I bought the original edition of this book, liked it and found it very useful. In this second edition, Tom Gersbeck and Daniel Evers give us even more technical details, additional information on explosives and suggestions for added safety. If you are in the public safety arena and need information to help you identify unknown munitions, you can't do better than this book.
The most obvious difference between the editions is the binding. The original used standard book binding and this new edition uses a spiral wire binding. For me, and most of the people I have asked, we all love the spiral binding. You can lay the book down open to the page you want without it constantly trying to close itself. You can fold the book in half, without risking breaking the binding and potentially losing pages. For me, the spiral binding makes this a much more functional tool. I bet you will like it too.
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