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No Rust for the Weary RUST: The Longest War. Jonathan Waldman. ix + 290 pp. Simon and Schuster, 2015. $26.95.
Those who combat rust for a living tend to agree on one point: It isn't exciting.
In Rust, journalist Jonathan Waldman's absorbing book on oxidation, workers in the corrosion business treat this claim like a mantra, even as their own words and actions contradict it. Bhaskar Neogi, the engineer responsible for the integrity of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline observes, "You can't be in this business if you're looking for excitement." This, just hours after he drove through a flightcancelling snowstorm from Anchorage to Valdez to witness a high-tech vulnerability-sensing robot finish the last leg of its roller-coaster journey through the full length of the 800mile pipeline.
John Cormona, proprietor of the Rust Store, contributes more cognitive dissonance. "Our products don't make Christmas lists," he says. "A gallon of rust remover isn't necessarily exciting." Yet his business, which he started in 2005, expanded steadily throughout the Great Recession. His inventory once took up two shelves in his garage; today it occupies a 10,000 square-foot warehouse. Over the years he's become a kind of Dear Abby of rust, fielding a continual stream of inquiries-from the peacemaking spouse fretting over offending rust stains to a caller trying to eradicate staining at the stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play.
Then there is Dan Dunmire, head of the U.S. Department of Defense's Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight, who insists, "Corrosion's not a sexy topic." Yet he brings a singular energy to combatting corrosion-"the pervasive menace," as he calls it-enthusing, "My job is to make boring things fun." His work has sent him around the globe, and he has won the admiration of NATO colleagues who base their practices on his, using a model they've named after him. The corrosion business opened the door for him to collaborate with one of his idols, actor LeVar Burton, on a series of training videos. What's more, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has estimated that Dunmire's projects average a 50-to-l return on investment, shaming many a high-tech startup. The experts seem prepared to fade into the background, yet the importance of their work is conspicuous-much like rust itself.
Happily, Waldman ignored his subjects' warnings...