Amateurs Beware

Much of the early progress in rocketry came from inspired amateurs who sometimes blew themselves up--along with an occasional bystander--in the interests of science. But now the professional descendants of the pioneers think the day of the amateur is over, are appalled at the risky stunts of rocket buffs from 16 to 60. So serious is the situation that the American Rocket Society has issued a 76-page booklet cataloguing the dangers and advising the amateurs to stop. Said A.R.S.: "All practical means must be taken to prevent the manufacture of propellants or rockets by amateurs."

Rockets get their zip by means of a restrained explosion; the rapidly burning propellant must generate hot gases at precisely the right pressure. If the pressure is too low, the rocket does not fly; too high, and it bursts like a bomb. Very slight defects or miscalculations can raise the pressure to the danger point. The rocket can explode if the nozzle is a few thousandths of an inch too small. A solid propellant may crack, sharply increasing the burning rate. Unburned propellant can block the nozzle, or flame can burn a hole in the thin casing. As any Cape Canaveral man knows, not even the pros can anticipate all possible ways for the rocket's restrained explosion to become unrestrained. Their motto: "Always assume that a rocket will explode.''

Mixing propellants from drugstore or agricultural chemicals is just as perilous. A.R.S. entrusts its members with a long list of dangerous combinations, urges that the list be kept secret so that youthful amateurs will not get any new ideas. Particularly touchy are propellants that must be mixed hot. Another bad actor, already well known to most kids: ordinary household match heads, which are apt to explode disastrously while being crammed into a makeshift rocket chamber.

At first, A.R.S. hoped to make hobby rocketry safe by expert supervision, asked scientists and military men to help the amateurs. But now it thinks rockets are best left alone altogether. The game has grown too big and too dangerous. All told, says A.R.S., some 10,000 amateurs are fiddling around with rockets today. During a sample six-week period, 162 of them were seriously injured. At that rate, a teen-age rocketeer has one chance in seven of getting hurt each year.

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