The Build Up

The Build-up, Volume 3 of the Stecher Trilogy, picks up the thread of White Mule and In the Money. Although all of the novels deal with the triumphant rise of an immigrant family in the early 1900s, The Build-up is more concerned with the overwhelming drive and ambition of Joe Stecher's wife, Gurlie. After years of hard work, careful planning (and his wife's badgering) Joe's printing business is providing his family with a comfortable income. As soon as her financial goal is realized, Gurlie focuses her attention on another area. Her phenomenal energy is soon earning her all unassailable position as a social leader in a small New Jersey suburb. Her achievement is not without its heartache, however. This story is told with all the gentle humor and exacting detail that mark Williams's prose works.

Metal Transfer and Build-up in Friction and Cutting aims to systematize our knowledge of the metal build-up, to describe some of the investigations past and present carried out in SFTI (Tomsk), and to make an effort to explain a number of the phenomena in cutting, scratching, and sliding from the point of view of metal transfer theory. The book opens with a chapter on the temperature of the rubbing interface of two solids. This temperature is needed in order to elucidate the nature of the formation of a build-up in scratching, cutting, and sliding. Separate chapters follow on the seizure phenomena, the role played by a built-up edge in scratching, the built-up edge in metal cutting, metal transfer in friction; the occurrence and nature of the build-up at various speeds, temperatures, and pressures; and the problem of friction between cast iron and steel.

The Indian journey to become a missile power was enabled by a team of dare devils at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL). The book traces the origin and development of India’s missile related infrastructure and missiles till 1982 until Dr. Abdul Kalam arrived at the scene. The fascinating story has been narrated by the pioneers themselves and edited by Dr. Prahalada. The chapters contain descriptions of key infrastructure, key people, key programs like India’s first Anti-Tank Missile, the Devil program, the Valiant Program and genesis of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme – IGMDP. The pioneers also describe the management practices developed and implemented to manage the complex programmes at shoe string budgets. Dr Prahlada is popularly known for his role as the Project Director for Akash SAM missile system. He has also been Program Director for India’s SLBM K15, supersonic cruise missile Brahmos and has led the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) as the Chairman of the Program Board. As the Director of DRDL he has initiated many new projects like Astra air to air missile system, Long Range Surface to air missile system for naval application, JV Project Brahmos Supersonic cruise missile system and hypersonic technology demonstrator. Since 1971 he has served in various ISRO and DRDO Establishments covering VSSC Trivandrum, ADE Bangalore and DRDL Hyderabad. His areas of interest cover aerodynamics, flight controls, guidance, propulsion, system design and system engineering, Project Management, Research Management and Technology Management. He has been the President and Chairman of many organisations, Fellow of many professional bodies and has won a number of awards including Padma Shri.

Each time when the book is finished, both of my eyes are full of tears. Each word in these series of books represents hard work and time and dedication and care for human health. These series are not just written down but are worked down. Science life is not always smooth and sometimes is extremely difficult. Science is endless. Only those who are not afraid of failure or risk can reach the summit of the mountain. In medical history the Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC), who is considered the Father of Medicine, was credited to the origin of the name cancer. He used the terms carcinos and carcinoma to recount non-ulcer-forming and ulcer-forming tumors. In Greek, these words refer to a crab because the finger-like spreading projections from cancer were similar to the shape of a crab. In his books, there are some records that also were written down: “Everyone has a physician inside him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well. Let our food as our medicine, and let medicine be our food.”