Download the full version of the textbook now at textbookfull.

com

Non-Traditional and Advanced Machining

Technologies: Machine Tools and Operations
2nd Edition Helmi Youssef

https://textbookfull.com/product/non-traditional-
and-advanced-machining-technologies-machine-tools-
and-operations-2nd-edition-helmi-youssef/

Explore and download more textbook at https://textbookfull.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Non-Traditional and Advanced Machining Technologies 2nd

Edition Helmi Youssef (Author)

https://textbookfull.com/product/non-traditional-and-advanced-
machining-technologies-2nd-edition-helmi-youssef-author/

textbookfull.com

Traditional Machining Technology 2nd Edition Helmi Youssef

https://textbookfull.com/product/traditional-machining-technology-2nd-
edition-helmi-youssef/

textbookfull.com

Manufacturing Technology Materials, Processes, and

Equipment First Edition Helmi A. Youssef

https://textbookfull.com/product/manufacturing-technology-materials-
processes-and-equipment-first-edition-helmi-a-youssef/

textbookfull.com

The Oxford Handbook of Music and the Brain Oxford Library

of Psychology Michael H. Thaut

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-music-and-the-
brain-oxford-library-of-psychology-michael-h-thaut/

textbookfull.com
Information Security Planning A Practical Approach 2nd
Edition Susan Lincke

https://textbookfull.com/product/information-security-planning-a-
practical-approach-2nd-edition-susan-lincke/

textbookfull.com

Osteoarchaeology A Guide to the Macroscopic Study of Human

Skeletal Remains Efthymia Nikita (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/osteoarchaeology-a-guide-to-the-
macroscopic-study-of-human-skeletal-remains-efthymia-nikita-auth/

textbookfull.com

Machine Learning for Cyber Security Second International

Conference ML4CS 2019 Xi an China September 19 21 2019
Proceedings Xiaofeng Chen
https://textbookfull.com/product/machine-learning-for-cyber-security-
second-international-conference-ml4cs-2019-xi-an-china-
september-19-21-2019-proceedings-xiaofeng-chen/
textbookfull.com

Spinoza A Life Steven Nadler

https://textbookfull.com/product/spinoza-a-life-steven-nadler/

textbookfull.com

Contemporary Arts as Political Practice in Singapore 1st

Edition Wernmei Yong Ade

https://textbookfull.com/product/contemporary-arts-as-political-
practice-in-singapore-1st-edition-wernmei-yong-ade/

textbookfull.com
214 Single Best Answer Questions in Obstetrics eBook
Edition Eranthi Samarakoon

https://textbookfull.com/product/214-single-best-answer-questions-in-
obstetrics-ebook-edition-eranthi-samarakoon/

textbookfull.com
Non-Traditional and
Advanced Machining
Technologies
Non-Traditional and
Advanced Machining
Technologies
Second Edition

Helmi Youssef and Hassan El-Hofy

.
by CRC Press
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

and by CRC Press

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher can-
not assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and
apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright
material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmit-
ted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying, microflming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, with-
out written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, access www.copyright.com or
contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400.
For works that are not available on CCC please contact [email protected]

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Youseff, Helmi, author. | El-Hofy, Hassan, author.

Title: Non-traditional and advanced machining technologies : machine tools
and operations / Helmi Youseff and Hassan El-Hofy.
Description: Second edition. | Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, [2020] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2020011453 (print) | LCCN 2020011454 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367431341 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003055310 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Machining. | Machining--Equipment and supplies.
Classifcation: LCC TJ1185 .Y683 2020 (print) | LCC TJ1185 (ebook) | DDC
671.3/5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011453
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011454

ISBN: 978-0-367-43134-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-05531-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Times
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
 Dedication

To our grandsons and granddaughters,

Helmi Youssef: Youssef, Nour, Anourine, Fayrouz, and Yousra
Hassan El-Hofy: Omar, Zainah, Youssef,
Hassan, Hana, Ali, and Hala
Contents
Preface...................................................................................................................... xv
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................xvii
Author Biographies .................................................................................................xix
List of Symbols .......................................................................................................xxi
List of Acronyms ................................................................................................. xxiii

UNIT I Non-Traditional Machining Operations

and Non-Traditional Machine Tools

Chapter 1 Non-Traditional Machining Processes .................................................3

1.1 Introduction ..............................................................................3
1.2 Classifcation of Non-Traditional Machining Processes ...........4
1.3 Review Questions ......................................................................5
References ............................................................................................6

Chapter 2 Mechanical Non-Traditional Machining Operations and

Machine Tools ......................................................................................7
2.1 Jet Machines and Operations.....................................................7
2.1.1 Abrasive Jet Machining................................................7
2.1.1.1 Process Characteristics and Applications ...... 7
2.1.1.2 Work Station of Abrasive Jet Machining ....... 9
2.1.1.3 Process Capabilities.................................... 10
2.1.2 Water Jet Machining (Hydrodynamic Machining) .....11
2.1.2.1 Process Characteristics and Applications .....11
2.1.2.2 Equipment of WJM..................................... 14
2.1.2.3 Process Capabilities.................................... 17
2.1.3 Abrasive Water Jet Machining .................................. 17
2.1.3.1 Process Characteristics and Applications ......17
2.1.3.2 AWJM Equipment ..................................... 21
2.1.3.3 Process Capabilities ...................................26
2.2 Ultrasonic Machining .............................................................28
2.2.1 Defnition, Characteristics, and Applications ............28
2.2.2 USM Equipment ........................................................ 31
2.2.3 Design of Acoustic Horns ......................................... 36
2.2.4 Process Capabilities ................................................... 50
2.2.5 Recent Developments ................................................. 53
2.3 Abrasive Flow Machining ...................................................... 54
2.3.1 Principles ................................................................... 54

vii
viii Contents

2.3.2 Process Parameters of Abrasive Flow Machining ..... 55

2.3.3 Applications of AFM .................................................60
2.4 Review Questions and Problems ............................................60
References .......................................................................................... 61

Chapter 3 Chemical and Electrochemical Non-Traditional Machining

Operations and Machine Tools........................................................... 63
3.1 Chemical Machining ............................................................... 63
3.1.1 Chemical Milling ...................................................... 63
3.1.2 Photochemical Machining (Spray Etching) ............... 70
3.2 Electrochemical Machines and Operations............................. 74
3.2.1 Process Characteristics and Applications ................. 74
3.2.2 Elements of ECM ....................................................... 77
3.2.3 ECM Equipment (EC Sinking Machine) ...................80
3.2.4 Process Capabilities ................................................... 82
3.2.5 ECM Allied Processes .............................................. 82
3.2.5.1 Shaped Tube Electrolytic Machining ......... 82
3.2.5.2 Electrostream (Capillary) Drilling ............. 85
3.2.5.3 Electrochemical Jet Drilling....................... 87
3.2.5.4 Electrochemical Deburring ........................ 87
3.2.5.5 Electrochemical Polishing ..........................90
3.2.5.6 Electrochemical Sharpening....................... 91
3.2.5.7 Electrochemical Grinding .........................92
3.2.5.8 Electrochemical Honing .............................94
3.3 Review Questions and Problems ............................................. 95
References ..........................................................................................97

Chapter 4 Thermo-Electrical Non-Traditional Machining Operations and

Machine Tools ....................................................................................99
4.1 Electrical Discharge Machines and Operations .....................99
4.1.1 Process Characteristics and Applications .................99
4.1.2 Sinking Machine ...................................................... 102
4.1.3 EDM-Spark Circuits (Power Supply Circuits) ......... 105
4.1.3.1 Resistance-Capacitance RC Circuit ......... 105
4.1.3.2 Transistorized Pulse Generator
Circuits...................................................... 108
4.1.4 EDM Tool Electrodes .............................................. 109
4.1.5 Process Capabilities ................................................ 110
4.1.6 EDM Allied Processes ............................................. 112
4.1.6.1 Electrical Discharge Milling
(ED Milling) ............................................ 112
4.1.6.2 Electrical Discharge Wire Cutting .......... 115
4.2 Electron Beam Machining Equipment and Operations ....... 116
4.2.1 Process Characteristics and Applications ............... 116
Contents ix

4.2.2 Electron Beam Machining Equipment .................... 118

4.2.3 Process Capabilities ................................................ 120
4.3 Laser Beam Machining Equipment and Operations ............ 123
4.3.1 Process Characteristics ............................................ 123
4.3.2 Types of Lasers ........................................................ 125
4.3.2.1 Pyrolithic and Photolithic Lasers ............ 125
4.3.2.2 Industrial Lasers ...................................... 125
4.3.3 Laser Beam Machining Operations ........................ 127
4.3.4 LBM Equipment....................................................... 131
4.3.5 Applications and Capabilities................................... 132
4.4 Plasma Arc Cutting Systems and Operations........................ 135
4.4.1 Process Characteristics............................................. 135
4.4.2 Plasma Arc Cutting Systems.................................... 136
4.4.3 Applications and Capabilities of PAC ...................... 137
4.5 Review Questions and Problems ........................................... 139
References ........................................................................................ 143

UNIT II Advanced Machining Technology

Chapter 5 Machining of DTC Materials (Stainless Steels and Super

Alloys) by Traditional and Non-Traditional Methods ...................... 147
5.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 147
5.2 Traditional Machining of Stainless Steels............................. 147
5.2.1 Types, Characteristics, and Applications of SSs ...... 147
5.2.2 Machinability and Machinability Ratings of SSs .......152
5.2.2.1 Free-Machining Additives of Stainless
Steels......................................................... 152
5.2.2.2 Machinability of Free- and
Non-Free-Machining Stainless Steels ...... 153
5.2.2.3 Enhanced Machining Stainless Steels...... 155
5.2.2.4 Machinability Ratings of Stainless Steels......155
5.2.3 Machining and Machining Conditions of SSs ........ 156
5.3 Traditional Machining of Super Alloys................................. 166
5.3.1 Types, Characteristics, and Applications of SAs ..... 166
5.3.2 Machinability and Machinability Rating of
Super Alloys ............................................................ 173
5.3.2.1 Machinability Aspects of Super Alloys ......173
5.3.2.2 Machinability Rating of Super Alloys ........174
5.3.3 Machining and Machining Conditions of Super
Alloys ....................................................................... 178
5.4 Non-Traditional Machining of Stainless Steels and Super
Alloys..................................................................................... 191
5.4.1 Machining of Stainless Steels and Super Alloys
by Mechanical Techniques ...................................... 192
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
x Contents

5.4.2 Machining SSs and SAs by Electrochemical and

Chemical Techniques ............................................... 195
5.4.3 Thermoelectric Machining of Stainless Steels
and Super Alloys ......................................................207
5.5 Review Questions .................................................................. 214
References ........................................................................................ 216

Chapter 6 Machining of DTC Materials (Ceramics and Composites) by

Traditional and Non-Traditional Methods........................................ 219
6.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 219
6.2 Machining of Ceramic Materials .......................................... 219
6.2.1 Ceramic as a Promising Engineering Material........ 219
6.2.2 Types, Characteristics, Classifcation, and
Applications of Ceramics ......................................... 221
6.2.2.1 Types, Characteristics, and Classifcation.....221
6.2.2.2 Fields of Applications ............................... 225
6.2.3 Fabrication Techniques of Crystalline Ceramics ..... 226
6.2.3.1 Processing Techniques and Shaping of
Green Bodies ............................................ 227
6.2.3.2 Green Machining Processes of Green
and Pre-Sintered Ceramics ....................... 229
6.2.3.3 Hard Machining Processes of Sintered
Ceramics .................................................. 230
6.3 Machining of Composite Materials ......................................246
6.3.1 Types, Characteristics, and Applications of
Composites ...............................................................246
6.3.2 Traditional Machining and Machinability of
Composites ............................................................... 247
6.3.3 Non-Traditional Machining and Machinability of
Composites ............................................................... 258
6.4 Review Questions .................................................................. 262
References ........................................................................................ 263

Chapter 7 Assisted Machining Technologies.................................................... 267

7.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 267
7.2 Thermal-Assisted Machining ................................................ 267
7.2.1 Laser-Assisted Machining........................................ 268
7.2.2 Plasma-Assisted Machining .................................... 269
7.3 Vibration-Assisted Machining (VAM).................................. 270
7.3.1 Principles and Aims of VAM................................... 270
7.3.2 Vibration-Assisted Traditional Machining
Processes .................................................................. 274
7.3.2.1 Vibration-Assisted Turning ...................... 274
7.3.2.2 Vibration-Assisted Drilling ...................... 274
Contents xi

7.3.2.3 Vibration-Assisted Milling ....................... 275

7.3.2.4 Vibration-Assisted Grinding..................... 276
7.3.3 Vibration-Assisted Non-Traditional Machining
Processes .................................................................. 276
7.3.3.1 Vibration-Assisted Electrochemical
Machining (VAECM)............................... 276
7.3.3.2 Vibration-Assisted Electrodischarge
Machining.................................................280
7.3.3.3 Vibration-Assisted Laser Beam
Machining................................................. 282
7.3.3.4 Vibration-Assisted Abrasive Water Jet
Machining................................................. 282
7.4 Magnetic Field-Assisted Processes ....................................... 283
7.4.1 Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF).......................284
7.4.1.1 Finishing of Outer Cylindrical
Surfaces and Typical Machining
Conditions of MAF................................... 285
7.4.1.2 MAF Finishing of Inner Cylindrical
Surfaces ....................................................290
7.4.1.3 Semi-Magnetic Abrasive Finishing
(SMAF).....................................................290
7.4.1.4 Other MAF Applications.......................... 291
7.4.2 Magnetic Float Polishing (MFP) or Magnetic
Fluid Grinding (MFG) ............................................. 291
7.4.3 Advantages of MFAP ............................................... 294
7.4.4 Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF) ..................... 294
7.4.5 Magnetorheological Abrasive Flow
Finishing (MRAFF)................................................. 295
7.5 Review Questions .................................................................. 296
References ........................................................................................ 296

Chapter 8 Design for Machining....................................................................... 299

8.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 299
8.1.1 General Design Rules...............................................300
8.2 General Design Recommendations .......................................300
8.3 Design for Machining by Cutting.......................................... 303
8.3.1 Turning ..................................................................... 303
8.3.1.1 Economic Production Quantities..............304
8.3.1.2 Design Recommendations for Turning..... 305
8.3.1.3 Dimensional Control.................................309
8.3.2 Drilling and Allied Operations ................................ 311
8.3.2.1 Economic Production Quantities.............. 312
8.3.2.2 Design Recommendations for Drilling
and Allied Operations............................... 312
8.3.2.3 Dimensional Control................................. 316
xii Contents

8.3.3 Milling...................................................................... 316

8.3.3.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 316
8.3.3.2 Dimensional Factors and Tolerances ........ 319
8.3.4 Shaping, Planing, and Slotting ................................. 321
8.3.4.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 321
8.3.4.2 Dimensional Control................................. 323
8.3.5 Broaching ................................................................. 323
8.3.5.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 324
8.3.5.2 Dimensional Factors ................................. 331
8.3.5.3 Recommended Tolerances ........................ 331
8.3.6 Thread Cutting ......................................................... 332
8.3.6.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 332
8.3.6.2 Dimensional Factors and Tolerances ........ 333
8.3.7 Gear Cutting............................................................. 334
8.3.7.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 334
8.3.7.2 Dimensional Factors ................................. 336
8.4 Design for Grinding............................................................... 337
8.4.1 Surface Grinding...................................................... 337
8.4.1.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 337
8.4.1.2 Dimensional Control ................................ 338
8.4.2 Cylindrical Grinding ................................................ 339
8.4.2.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 339
8.4.2.2 Dimensional Factors .................................340
8.4.3 Centerless Grinding.................................................. 341
8.4.3.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 341
8.4.3.2 Dimensional Control................................. 343
8.5 Design for Abrasive Finishing Processes .............................. 343
8.5.1 Honing...................................................................... 343
8.5.2 Lapping.....................................................................344
8.5.3 Superfnishing .......................................................... 345
8.6 Design for Chemical and Electrochemical Machining ......... 345
8.6.1 Chemical Machining................................................ 345
8.6.1.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 345
8.6.1.2 Dimensional Factors and Tolerances ........ 347
8.6.2 Electrochemical Machining .....................................348
8.6.2.1 Design Recommendations ........................348
8.6.2.2 Dimensional Factors ................................. 351
8.6.3 Electrochemical Grinding ........................................ 351
8.6.3.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 352
8.6.3.2 Dimensional Factors ................................. 352
8.7 Design for Thermal Machining............................................. 352
8.7.1 Electrodischarge Machining .................................... 352
8.7.1.1 Design Recommendations ........................ 352
8.7.1.2 Dimensional Factors ................................. 353
8.7.2 Electron Beam Machining ....................................... 354
8.7.3 Laser Beam Machining ............................................ 355
Contents xiii

8.8 Design for Ultrasonic Machining.......................................... 356

8.9 Design for Abrasive Jet Machining ....................................... 358
8.10 Review Questions .................................................................. 359
References ........................................................................................360

Chapter 9 Accuracy and Surface Integrity Realized by Machining

Processes .......................................................................................... 361
9.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 361
9.2 Surface Texture...................................................................... 361
9.3 Surface Quality and Functional Properties ...........................364
9.4 Surface Integrity.................................................................... 365
9.5 Surface Effects by Traditional Machining ............................ 369
9.5.1 Chip Removal Processes .......................................... 369
9.5.2 Grinding ................................................................... 369
9.6 Surface Effects by Non-Traditional Machining .................... 376
9.6.1 Electrochemical and Chemical Machining.............. 377
9.6.2 Thermal Non-Traditional Processes......................... 380
9.6.2.1 Electrodischarge Machining..................... 380
9.6.2.2 Laser Beam Machining ............................ 384
9.6.2.3 Electron Beam Machining........................ 386
9.6.2.4 Plasma Beam Machining (PBM).............. 386
9.6.2.5 Electroerosion Dissolution Machining ..... 386
9.6.2.6 Electrochemical Discharge Grinding ....... 387
9.6.3 Mechanical Non-Traditional Processes.................... 387
9.7 Reducing Distortion and Surface Effects in Machining ....... 388
9.8 Review Questions .................................................................. 390
References ........................................................................................ 390

Chapter 10 Environment-Friendly Machine Tools and Operations.................... 393

10.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 393
10.2 Traditional Machining........................................................... 397
10.2.1 Cutting Fluids...........................................................400
10.2.1.1 Classifcation of Cutting Fluids ................400
10.2.1.2 Selection of Cutting Fluids ....................... 401
10.2.1.3 Evaluation of Cutting Fluids..................... 401
10.2.2 Hazard Ranking of Cutting Fluids...........................403
10.2.3 Health Hazards of Cutting Fluids ............................403
10.2.4 Cryogenic Cooling ...................................................405
10.2.5 Ecological Machining ..............................................405
10.2.6 Factors Affecting the Use of MQL...........................406
10.2.7 Applications of Ecological Machining.....................407
10.3 Non-Traditional Machining Processes .................................. 410
10.3.1 Chemical Machining................................................ 410
10.3.2 Electrochemical Machining ..................................... 413
xiv Contents

10.3.3 Electrodischarge Machining .................................... 415

10.3.3.1 Protective Measures.................................. 418
10.3.4 Laser Beam Machining ............................................ 418
10.3.5 Ultrasonic Machining............................................... 421
10.3.5.1 Electromagnetic Field............................... 421
10.3.5.2 Ultrasonic Waves ...................................... 422
10.3.5.3 Abrasives Slurry ....................................... 423
10.3.5.4 Contact Hazards........................................ 424
10.3.5.5 Other Hazards........................................... 424
10.3.6 Abrasive Jet Machining............................................ 424
10.4 Review Questions .................................................................. 427
References ........................................................................................ 428

Chapter 11 Hexapods and Machining Technology............................................. 429

11.1 Introduction ........................................................................... 429
11.2 Historical Background........................................................... 429
11.3 Hexapod Mechanism and Design Features ........................... 432
11.3.1 Hexapod Mechanism................................................ 432
11.3.2 Design Features........................................................ 433
11.3.2.1 Hexapods of Telescopic Struts
(Ingersoll System)..................................... 433
11.3.2.2 Hexapods of Ball Screw Struts (Hexel
and Geodetic System) ............................... 436
11.4 Hexapod Constructional Elements ........................................ 439
11.4.1 Strut Assembly ......................................................... 439
11.4.2 Sphere Drive.............................................................440
11.4.3 Bifurcated Balls........................................................ 441
11.4.4 Spindles ....................................................................444
11.4.5 Articulated Head ......................................................444
11.4.6 Upper Platform ......................................................... 445
11.4.7 Control System ......................................................... 447
11.5 Hexapod Characteristics........................................................449
11.6 Manufacturing Applications.................................................. 454
11.7 Review Questions .................................................................. 458
References ........................................................................................ 458

Index...................................................................................................................... 459
Preface
Non-Traditional and Advanced Machining Technologies consists of 11 chapters.
Every chapter has been updated emphasizing new information on the relevant topics.
Today’s interests such as machining of DTC materials, assisted machining technolo-
gies, and hybrid processes are also featured in brand-new chapters. Accordingly, this
book provides a comprehensive description of non-traditional and advanced machin-
ing technologies, from the basic to the most advanced, in today’s industrial applica-
tions. It is a fundamental textbook for undergraduate students enrolled in production,
materials and manufacturing, industrial, and mechanical engineering programs.
Students from other disciplines can also use this book while taking courses in the
area of manufacturing and materials engineering. It should also be useful to gradu-
ates enrolled in high-level machining technology courses and professional engineers
working in the feld of the manufacturing industry. The book covers the technolo-
gies, machine tools, and operations of several non-traditional machining processes.
The treatment of the different subjects has been developed from the basic principles
of machining processes, machine tool elements, and control systems, and extends to
ecological machining and the most recent machining technologies, including non-
traditional methods, and machining DTC materials. The book presents environment-
friendly machine tools and operations; as well as design for machining, accuracy,
and surface integrity realized by both traditional and non-traditional machining
operations. Solved examples, problems, and review questions are provided.
Design for accurate and economic machining, ecological machining, levels of
accuracy, and surface fnish attained by machining methods are also presented.
The topics covered throughout the book chapters refect the rapid and signifcant
advances that have occurred in various areas in machining technologies, and they
are organized and described in such a manner as to draw the interest of students.
The chapters of the book are aimed at motivating and challenging students to explore
technically and economically viable solutions to a variety of important questions
regarding product design and optimum selection of machining operation for a given
task.
Outline of Non-Traditional and Advanced Machining Technologies
Unit I: Non-Traditional Machining Operations and Non-Traditional Machine
Tools
Chapter 1 presents an introduction and classifcation of the non-traditional
machine tools.
Chapter 2 presents the mechanical machining processes such as ultrasonic, jet
machining, and abrasive fow machining.
Chemical milling, electrochemical machining and electrochemical grinding
machine tools are described in Chapter 3.
Machine tools for thermal processes such as electric discharge, laser beam, elec-
tron beam, and plasma arc machining are presented in Chapter 4. Machine tools,
basic elements, accessories, operations, removal rate, accuracy, and surface integrity
are covered for each case.

xv
xvi Preface

Unit II: Advanced Machining Technology

Chapter 5 presents machining of diffcult-to-cut materials such as stainless steels
and super alloys, while in Chapter 6 the machinability of composites and ceramics,
are treated by traditional and non-traditional means.
Chapter 7 covers assisted machining technologies. These technologies include US,
thermal, EC, and magnetic effects to enhance the machinability of DTC materials.
An introduction to design recommendations for economic machining and sources
of dimensional variations by traditional and non-traditional processes is covered in
Chapter 8.
Dimensional accuracy and surface integrity by traditional and non-traditional
machining processes are dealt with in Chapter 9. Sources of surface alterations, their
effects on the functional properties of machined parts, and recommendations for
minimizing surface effects are also given.
The environment-friendly machine tools and operations are described in Chapter
10 which tend to detect the source of hazards and minimize their effect on the opera-
tor, machine tool, and environment.
Hexapod mechanisms, design features, constructional elements, characteristics,
control, and their applications in traditional and non-traditional machining, manu-
facturing, and robotics are dealt with in Chapter 11.
Acknowledgements
Many individuals have contributed to the development of the second edition of this
book. It is a pleasure to express our deep gratitude to Professor Dr. Ing. A. Visser,
Bremen University, Germany, for supplying valuable materials during the prepara-
tion of this new edition. We would like to appreciate the efforts of Dr. Khaled Youssef
for his continual assistance in tackling software problems during the preparation of
the manuscript. Special thanks are offered to Saied Teileb of Lord Alexandria Razor
Company for his fne Auto-CAD drawings.
Heartfelt thanks are due to our families for their great patience, support, encour-
agement, enthusiasm, and interest during the preparation of the manuscript. We extend
our heartfelt gratitude to the editorial and production staff at Taylor & Francis Group
for their efforts to ensure that this book is as accurate and well-designed as possible.
We very much appreciate the permissions from all publishers to reproduce many
illustrations from a number of authors as well as the courtesy of many industrial
companies that provided photographs and drawings of their products to be included
in this new edition of the book. Their generous cooperation is a mark of sincere
interest in enhancing the level of engineering education. The credits for all this great
help are given in the captions under the corresponding illustrations, photographs,
and tables. It is with great pleasure that we, therefore, acknowledge the help of the
following organizations:

Alexandria Engineering Journal, Alexandria, Egypt.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
ASM International, Materials Park, OH.
Cassell and Co. Ltd., London, UK.
Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
CIRP, Paris, France.
Dar Al-Maaref Publishing Co., Alexandria, Egypt.
El-Fath Press, Alexandria, Egypt.
Elsevier Ltd, Oxford, UK.
Hodder and Stoughton Educational, London, UK.
Industrial Press Inc., New York, NY.
Industrie-Anzeiger, Aachen, Germany.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY.
Khanna Publisher, Delhi, India.
Leuze Verlag, Bad Saulgau, Germany.
Machinability Data Center, Cincinnati, OH.
Marcel Dekker Inc., New York, NY.
McGraw Hill Co., New York, NY.
Mir Publishers, Moscow, Russia.
Oxford University Press, UK.

xvii
xviii Acknowledgements

Pearson Education Inc., NJ.

Peter Peregrines Ltd., Stevenage, UK.
Prentice Hall Publishing Co., New York, NY.
SME, Dearborn, MI.
Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
Tata McGraw Hill Co., New Delhi, India.
TH-Aachen, Germany.
TH-Braunschweig, Germany.
VDI Verlag, Düsseldorf, Germany.
VEB-Verlag Technik, Berlin, Germany.
Alfred Herbert Ltd., Coventry, UK.
All Metals & Forge Group, NJ.
American Gear Manufacturing Association (AGMA), VA.
British Stainless Steel Association, Sheffeld, UK.
Carpenter Technology Corporation, PA.
Charmilles Technologies, Geneva, Switzerland.
Cincinnati Machines, OH.
DeVlieg Machine Co., MI.
Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., UK.
Falcon Metals Group, Waldwick, NJ.
Geodetic Inc., Melbourne, FL.
Hardinge Incorporation, Berwyn, PA.
Heald Machine Company, Worcester, MA.
Heinemann Machine Tool Works-Schwarzwald, Germany.
Herbert Machine Tools Ltd., UK.
High Performance Alloys Inc., USA.
Hoffman Co., Carlisle, PA.
Hottinger-Baldwin Meβ-technik, Darmstadt, Germany.
Index-Werke AG, Esslingen/Neckar, Germany.
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Ingersoll Waldrich Siegen Werkzeugmachinen GmbH, Germany.
Kennametal Incorporation, Pittsburgh, PA.
Kistler Instrumente AG, Switzerland.
Krupp, Widia, GmbH, Essen, Germany.
Lehfeld Works, Heppenheim, Germany.
Liebherr Verzahntechnik, Kempten, Germany.
MAZAK Corporation Florence, KY.
MG Industries/Steigerwald, Berlin, Germany.
Mitsubishi EDSCAN, Toyohashi, Japan.
Nassovia-Krupp, Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik, Langen/Frankfurt, Germany.
ONSRUD tool company, USA.
PittlerMachinenfabrik AG, Langen/Frankfurt, Germany.
Sandvik Coromant, Sweden.
Seco Tools, UAE.
Standard Tool Co., Athol, MA.
Thermal-Dynamic Corp., Chesterfeld, MO.
VEB-Drehmaschinenwerk/Leipzig, Germany.
WMW Machinery Co, New York, NY.
Author Biographies
Helmi Youssef, born in August, 1938 in Alexandria,
Egypt, acquired his BSc degree with honors in Production
Engineering from Alexandria University in 1960. He
then consolidated his scientifc experience in the Carolo-
Welhelmina, TH Braunschweig, in Germany during the
period 1961–1967. In June 1964, he acquired his Dipl.-Ing.
degree, and in December 1967, he completed his Dr.-Ing.
degree in the domain of Nontraditional Machining. In
1968, he returned to Alexandria University, Production
Engineering Department, as an assistant professor. In
1973, he was promoted to associate, and in 1978, to full
professor. In the period 1995–1998, Professor Youssef was
the chairman of the Production Engineering Department, Alexandria University.
Since 1989, he has been a member of the scientifc committee for the promotion of
professors in Egyptian universities.
Based on several research and educational laboratories, which he had built, Professor
Youssef founded his own scientifc school in both Traditional and Nontraditional
Machining Technologies. In the early 1970s, he established the frst Nontraditional
Machining Technologies research laboratory in Alexandria University, and maybe in
the whole region. Since that time, he has carried out intensive research in his felds of
specialization and has supervised many PhD and MSc theses.
Between 1975 and 1998, Professor Youssef was a visiting professor in Arabic
universities, such as El-Fateh University in Tripoli, the Technical University in
Baghdad, King Saud University in Riyadh, and Beirut Arab University in Beirut.
Beside his teaching activities in these universities, he established laboratories and
supervised many MSc theses. Moreover, he was a visiting professor in different aca-
demic institutions in Egypt and abroad. In 1982, he was a visiting professor in the
University of Rostock, Germany, and during the years 1997–1998, he was a visiting
professor in the University of Bremen, Germany.
Professor Youssef has organized and participated in many international con-
ferences. He has published many scientifc papers in specialized journals. He
has authored many books in his felds of specialization, two of which are single
authored. The frst is in Arabic, titled Nontraditional Machining Processes, Theory
and Practice, published in 2005, and the other is titled Machining of Stainless Steels
and Superalloys, Traditional and Nontraditional Techniques, published by Wiley
in 2016. Another two coauthored books were published by CRC in 2008 and 2011,
respectively. The frst is on Machining Technology, while the second deals with
Manufacturing Technology.
Currently, Professor Youssef is an emeritus professor in the Production Engineering
Department, Alexandria University. His work currently involves developing courses
and conducting research in the areas of metal cutting and nontraditional machining.

xix
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
xx Author Biographies

Hassan El-Hofy received his BSc in Production

Engineering from Alexandria University, Egypt in 1976
and his MSc in 1979. Following his MSc, he worked as an
assistant lecturer in the same department. In October 1980,
he left for Aberdeen University in Scotland, UK and began
his PhD work with Professor J. McGeough in electrochemi-
cal discharge machining. He won the Overseas Research
Student award during the course of his doctoral degree,
which he duly completed in 1985. He then returned to
Alexandria University and resumed his work as an assistant
professor. In 1990, he was promoted to the rank of associate
professor. He was on sabbatical as a visiting professor at
Al-Fateh University in Tripoli between 1989 and 1994.
In July 1994, he returned to Alexandria University and was promoted to the rank
of full professor in November 1997. From September 2000, he worked as a profes-
sor for Qatar University. He chaired the accreditation committee for the mechani-
cal engineering program toward ABET Substantial Equivalency Recognition, which
was granted to the College of Engineering programs, Qatar University in 2005. He
received the Qatar University Award and a certifcate of appreciation for his role in
that event.
Professor El-Hofy’s frst book, entitled Advanced Machining Processes:
Nontraditional and Hybrid Processes, was published by McGraw Hill Co. in
2005. The third edition of his second book, entitled Fundamentals of Machining
Processes—Conventional and Nonconventional Processes, was published in
November 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, CRC Press. He also coauthored the
book entitled Machining Technology—Machine Tools and Operations, which was
published by Taylor & Francis Group, CRC Press in 2008. In 2011, he released
his fourth book, entitled Manufacturing Technology—Materials, Processes, and
Equipment, which again was published by Taylor & Francis Group, CRC Press.
Professor El-Hofy has published over 80 scientifc and technical papers and has
supervised many graduate students in the area of advanced machining. He serves
as a consulting editor to many international journals and is a regular participant in
many international conferences.
Between August 2007, and August 2010, he became the chairman of the
Department of Production Engineering, Alexandria University. In October 2011,
he was nominated as the vice dean for Education and Student’s affairs, College of
Engineering, Alexandria University. Between December 2012 and February 2018,
he was the dean of the Innovative Design Engineering School at the Egypt-Japan
University of Science and Technology in Alexandria, Egypt. He worked as acting
Vice President of Research from December 2014 to April 2017 at the Egypt-Japan
University of Science and Technology. Currently, he is the Professor of Machining
Technology at the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at
Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology.
List of Symbols
Symbol Defnition Unit
A(x) Area of acoustic horn at position x mm2
A0 Area of acoustic horn at position 0 mm2
At Horizontal vibration amplitude μm
Bt Vertical vibration amplitude μm
c Acoustic speed in horn material m/s
C Capacitance μF
C‵ Modifed acoustic speed in horn material km/s
c1 Specifc heat of workpiece material N m/kg °C
Cd Coeffcient of thermal diffusivity m2/s
ci Constraints
D Drilled hole diameter mm
Dmax Maximum delamination diameter mm
D(x) Diameter of acoustic horn at position x mm
dc Fixation hole diameter of horn mm
df Electron beam focusing diameter mm
D0 Diameter of acoustic horn at position 0 mm
E Young’s modulus MPa
Ed Energy of individual discharge J
F Force N
Fa Two-dimensional delamination factor %
Fd Delamination factor %
f, fr Frequency s−1
Fx Radial magnetic force N
Fy Tangential magnetic force N
H Magnetic feld strength Tesla
h Ascent factor of exponential horn m/s
hg Frontal gap thickness in EDM mm
ib Electron beam current A
ic Charging current A
id Discharging current A
Ip Premagnetizing current A
kr Coeffcient of magneto-mechanical coupling
kt Thermal conductivity N/s °C
l Length mm
M Mobility –
m Mass kg
ne Number of elements in the hexapod system
P Laser power W
R Resistance Ω
R0 Initial level position mm
Ra Average surface roughness μm
Rm Magnifcation factor μm

xxi
xxii List of Symbols

Rt, Rmax Peak-to-valley surface roughness μm

t Workpiece thickness in laser cutting mm
T Depth of cut (time) mm (s)
t(x) Thickness function m
T1 Input torque N mm
t1 Plate thickness mm
tc Charging time μs
td Discharging time μs
Te Chemical etch depth mm
ti Pulse duration °C
v Laser cutting rate m/s
V Volume of conglomerate mm3
VA Anodic dissolution rate mm/min
Vb Electron beam accelerating voltage V
Vc Capacitor voltage V
vf Feed rate in ECM mm/min
Vo Open circuit voltage V
Vs Breakdown voltage V
Wave Average power W
w0 Width mm
x(t) Horizontal position at time t μm
x (t ) Horizontal velocity at time t m/s
xn Nodal point location m
z(t) Vertical position at time t μm
z(t) Vertical velocity at time t m/s

χ Susceptibility of conglomerates
βm Abrasive/air weight mixing ratio %
ξ Oscillation amplitude μm
ω Angular speed radian/s
εms Coeffcient of magnetostrictive elongation
η Current effciency %
ρ Density of the magnetostriction material kg/m3
θm Melting point of workpiece material °C
σ Stress kg/mm2
λ Wavelength μm
List of Acronyms
Abbreviation Description
ac Alternating current
AFM Abrasive fow machining
AGMA American Gear Manufacturing Association
AISI American Iron and Steel Institute
AJECM Abrasive jet electrochemical machining
AJM Abrasive jet machining
AMZ Altered material zone
ANSI American National Standards Institute
ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
ATM Atmosphere
AWJ Abrasive water jet
AWJD Abrasive water jet deburring
AWJM Abrasive water jet machining
BHN Brinell hardness number
BUE Built-up edge
CBN Cubic boron nitride
CD Conventional drilling
CFG Creep feed grinding
CFRP Carbon fber reinforced polymer
CG Conventional grinding
CHM Chemical machining
CH milling Chemical milling
CI Cast iron
CMC Ceramic matrix composite
CNC Computer numerical control
CW Continuous wave
CY Cyaniding
dC Direct current
DFM Design for manufacturing
DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung
DOF Degrees of freedom
DOT Department of Transportation
DTC Diffcult-to-cut
EB Electron Beam
EBM Electron beam machining
ECA Electrochemical abrasion
ECAM Electrochemical arc machining
ECD Electrochemical dissolution
ECDB Electrochemical deburring
ECDG Electrochemical discharge grinding

xxiii
xxiv List of Acronyms

ECDM Electrochemical discharge machining

ECG Electrochemical grinding
ECH Electrochemical honing
ECM Electrochemical machining
ECS Electrochemical sharpening
ECUSM Electrochemical ultrasonic machining
ED milling Electrical discharge milling
EDG Electrodischarge grinding
EDM Electrodischarge machining
EDS Electrodischarge sawing
EDT Electrodischarge texturing
EDWC Electrodischarge wire cutting
EEDM Electroerosion dissolution machining
EF Etch factor
EHS Environmental health and safety
ELID Electrolytic in-process grinding
ELP Electropolishing
EMF Electromagnetic feld
EMS Environmental Management System
EOB End of block
EP Extreme pressure
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
FEA Finite element analysis
FRP Fiber reinforced polymer
GFRP Glass fber reinforced polymer
H1, H2 Hardness values
HAZ Heat-affected zone
HB Hardness Brinell
HF High frequency
HMIS Hazardous Material Identifcation System
HMP Hybrid machining processes
HP Hybrid process
HRC Hardness Rockwell
HSS High-speed steel
HT High temperature
IBM Ion beam machining
IEG Inter-electrode gap
IGA Intergranular attack
IMPS Integrated manufacturing production system
ipr Inches per revolution
IR Infrared
ISO International Organization for Standardization
L and T Laps and tears
Laser Light amplifcation by stimulated emission of radiation
LAM Laser-assisted machining/milling
LAT Laser-assisted turning
LBM Laser beam machining
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
 § 21
Monday broke clear and fine, with a September freshness in the
sunshine. Breakfast was an awkward meal; Peter was constrained,
Oswald was worried by a sense of advice and counsels not given;
Joan felt the situation slipping from her helpless grasp. It was with a
sense of relief that at last she put on her khaki overcoat to drive Peter
to the station. “This is the end,” sang in Joan’s mind. “This is the
end.” She glanced at the mirror in the hall and saw that the fur collar
was not unfriendly to her white neck and throat. She was in despair,
but she did not mean to let it become an unbecoming despair—at
least until Peter had departed. The end was still incomplete. She had
something stern and unpleasant to say to Peter before they parted,
but she did not mean to look stern or unpleasant while she said it.
Peter, she noted with a gleam of satisfaction, was in low spirits. He
was sorry to go. He was ashamed of himself, but also he was sorry.
That was something, at any rate, to have achieved. But he was going
—nevertheless.
She brought round the little Singer to the door. She started the
engine with a competent swing and got in. The maids came with
Peter’s portmanteau and belongings. “This is the end,” said Joan to
herself, touching her accelerator and with her hand ready to release
the brake. “All aboard?” said Joan aloud.
Peter shook hands with Oswald over the side of the car, and
glanced from him to the house and back at him. “I wish I could stay
longer, sir,” said Peter.
“There’s many days to come yet,” said Oswald. For we never
mention death before death in war time; we never let ourselves think
of it before it comes or after it has come.
“So long, Nobby!”
“Good luck, Peter!”
Joan put the car into gear, and steered out into the road.
“The water-splash is lower than ever I’ve seen it,” said Peter.
 They ran down the road to the station almost in silence. “These
poplars have got a touch of autumn in them already,” said Peter.
“It’s an early year,” said Joan.
“The end, the end!” sang the song in Joan’s brain. “But I’ll tell him
all the same.”...
But she did not tell him until they could hear the sound of the
approaching train that was to cut the thread of everything for Joan.
They walked together up the little platform to the end.
“I’m sorry you’re going,” said Joan.
“I’m infernally sorry. If I’d known you’d get this week——”
“Would that have altered it?” she said sharply.
“No. I suppose it wouldn’t,” he fenced, just in time to save himself.
The rattle of the approaching train grew suddenly loud. It was
round the bend.
Joan spoke in a perfectly even voice. “I know you have been lying,
Peter. I have known it all this week-end. I know your leave lasts until
the twenty-first.”
He stared at her in astonishment.
“There was a time.... It’s to think of all this dirt upon you that hurts
most. The lies, the dodges, the shuffling meanness of it. From you....
Whom I love.”
A gap of silence came. To the old porter twelve yards off they
seemed entirely well-behaved and well-disciplined young people,
saying nothing in particular. The train came in with a sort of wink
under the bridge, and the engine and foremost carriages ran past
them up the platform.
“I wish I could explain. I didn’t know—— The fact is I got
entangled in a sort of promise....”
“Hetty!” Joan jerked out, and “There’s an empty first for you.”
The train stopped.
Peter put his hand on the handle of the carriage door.
“You go to London—like a puppy that rolls in dirt. You go to
beastliness and vulgarity.... You’d better get in, Peter.”
“But look here, Joan!”
 “Get in!” she scolded to his hesitation, and stamped her foot.
He got in mechanically, and she closed the door on him and turned
the handle and stood holding it.
Then still speaking evenly and quietly, she said: “You’re a blind
fool, Peter. What sort of love can that—that—that miscellany give
you, that I couldn’t give? Have I no life? Have I no beauty? Are you
afraid of me? Don’t you see—don’t you see? You go off to that! You
trail yourself in the dirt and you trail my love in the dirt. Before a
female hack!...
“Look at me!” she cried, holding her hands apart. “Think of me
tonight.... Yours! Yours for the taking!”
The train was moving.
She walked along the platform to keep pace with him, and her eyes
held his. “Peter,” she said; and then with amazing quiet intensity:
“You damned fool!”
She hesitated on the verge of saying something more. She came
towards the carriage. It wasn’t anything pleasant that she had in
mind, to judge by her expression.
“Stand away please, miss!” said the old porter, hurrying up to
intervene. She abandoned that last remark with an impatient
gesture.
Peter sat still. The end of the station ran by like a scene in a
panorama. Her Medusa face had slid away to the edge of the picture
that the window framed, and vanished.
For some seconds he was too amazed to move.
Then he got up heavily and stuck his head out of the window to
stare at Joan.
Joan was standing quite still with her hands in the side pockets of
her khaki overcoat; she was standing straight as a rod, with her heels
together, looking at the receding train. She never moved....
Neither of these two young people made a sign to each other,
which was the first odd thing the old porter noted about them. They
just stared. By all the rules they should have waved handkerchiefs.
The next odd thing was that Joan stared at the bend for half a minute
perhaps after the train had altogether gone, and then tried to walk
out to her car by the little white gate at the end of the platform which
had been disused and nailed up for three years....
 § 22
After Oswald had seen the car whisk through the gates into the
road, and after he had rested on his crutches staring at the gates for a
time, he had hobbled back to his study. He wanted to work, but he
found it difficult to fix his attention. He was thinking of Joan and
Peter, and for the first time in his life he was wondering why they
had never fallen in love with each other. They seemed such good
company for each other....
He was still engaged upon these speculations half an hour or so
later, when he heard the car return and presently saw Joan go past
his window. She was flushed, and she was staring in front of her at
nothing in particular. He had never seen Joan looking so unhappy.
In fact, so strong was his impression that she was unhappy that he
doubted it, and he went to the window and craned out after her.
She was going straight up towards the arbour. With a slight hurry
in her steps. She had her fur collar half turned up on one side, her
hands were deep in her pockets, and something about her dogged
walk reminded him of some long-forgotten moment, years ago it
must have been, when Joan, in hot water for some small offence, had
been sent indoors at The Ingle-Nook.
He limped back to his chair and sat thinking her over.
“I wonder,” he said at last, and turned to his work again....
There was no getting on with it. Half an hour later he accepted
defeat. “Peter has knocked us all crooked,” he said. “There’s no work
for today.”
He would go out and prowl round the place and look at the roses.
Perhaps Joan would come and talk. But at the gates he was amazed
to encounter Peter.
It was Peter, hot and dusty from a walk of three miles, and
carrying his valise with an aching left arm. There was a look of
defiance in the eyes that stared fiercely out from under the
perspiration-matted hair upon his forehead. He seemed to find
Oswald’s appearance the complete confirmation of the most
disagreeable anticipations. Thoughts of panic and desertion flashed
upon Oswald’s mind.
“Good God, Peter!” he cried. “What brings you back?”
“I’ve come back for another week,” said Peter.
“But your leave’s up!”
“I told a lie, sir. I’ve got another week.”
Oswald stared at his ward.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said Peter. “I’ve been making a fool of myself. I
thought better of it. I got out of the train at Standon and walked back
here.”
“What does it mean, Peter?” said Oswald.
Peter’s eyes were the most distressed eyes he had ever seen. “If
you’d just not ask, sir, now——”
It is a good thing to deal with one’s own blood in a crisis. Oswald,
resting thoughtfully on his crutches, leapt to a kind of
understanding.
“I’m going to hop down towards the village, Peter,” said Oswald,
becoming casual in his manner. “I want some exercise.... If you’ll tell
every one you’re back.”
He indicated the house behind him by a movement of his head.
Peter was badly blown with haste and emotion. “Thank you, sir,”
he said shortly.
Oswald stepped past him and stared down the road.
“Mrs. Moxton’s in the house,” he said without looking at Peter
again. “Joan’s up the garden. See you when I get back, Peter.... Glad
you’ve got another week, anyhow.... So long....”
He left Peter standing in the gateway.
Fear came upon Peter. He stood quite still for some moments,
looking at the house and the cedars. He dropped his valise at the
front door and mopped his face. Then he walked slowly across the
lawn towards the terraces. He wanted to shout, and found himself
hoarse. Then on the first terrace he got out: “Jo-un!” in a flat croak.
He had to cry again: “Jo-un!” before it sounded at all like the old
style.
 Joan became visible. She had come out of the arbour at the top of
the garden, and she was standing motionless, regarding him down
the vista of the central path. She was white and rather dishevelled,
and she stood quite still.
Peter walked up the steps towards her.
“I’ve come back, Joan,” he said, as he drew near. “I want to talk to
you.... Come into the arbour.”
He took her arm clumsily and led her back into the arbour out of
sight of the house. Then he dropped her arm.
“Joan,” he said, “I’ve been the damndest of fools ... as you said.... I
don’t know why.”...
He stood before her awkwardly. He was trembling violently. He
thought he was going to weep.
He could not touch her again. He did not dare to touch her.
Then Joan spread out her arms straight and stood like a crucifix.
Her face, which had been a dark stare, softened swiftly, became
radiant, dissolved into a dusky glow of tears and triumph. “Oh! Petah
my darling,” she sobbed, and seized him and kissed him with tear-
salt lips and hugged him to herself.
The magic barrier was smashed at last. Peter held her close to him
and kissed her....
It was the second time they had kissed since those black days at
High Cross school....
 § 23
Those were years of swift marryings, and Peter was a young
married man when presently he was added to the number of that
select company attached to sausage-shaped observation balloons
who were sent up in the mornings and pulled down at nights along
the British front. He had had only momentary snatches of
matrimony before the front had called him back to its own
destructive interests, but his experiences had banished any lingering
vestiges of his theory that there is one sort of woman you respect and
another sort you make love to. There was only one sort of woman to
love or respect, and that was Joan. He was altogether in love with
Joan, he was sure he had never been in love before, and he was now
also extravagantly in love with life. He wanted to go on with it, with a
passionate intensity. It seemed to him that it was not only beginning
for him, but for every one. Hitherto Man had been living down there,
down on those flats—for all the world is flat from the air. Now, at
last, men were beginning to feel how they might soar over all ancient
limitations.
Occasionally he thought of such things up in his basket, sitting like
a spectator in a box at a theatre, with the slow vast drama of the
western front spread out like a map beneath his eyes, with half
Belgium and a great circle of France in sight, the brown, ruined
country on either side of No Man’s Land, apparently lifeless, with its
insane tangle of trenches and communicating ways below, with the
crumbling heaps of ruined towns and villages scattered among canals
and lakes of flood water, and passing insensibly into a green and
normal-looking landscape to the west and east, where churches still
had towers and houses roofs, and woods were lumps and blocks of
dark green, fields manifestly cultivated patches, and roads white
ribbons barred by the purple poplar shadows. But these spectacular
and speculative phases were rare. They came only when a thin veil of
haze made the whole spacious prospect faint, so that beyond his
more immediate circle Peter could see only the broad outlines of the
land. Given worse conditions of the weather and he would be too
uncomfortable for philosophy; given better and he would be too
busy.
He sat on a canvas seat inside the square basket with his
instruments about him, or leant over the side scrutinizing the details
of the eastward landscape. Upon his head, over his ears, he wore a
telephone receiver, and about his body was a rope harness that
linked him by a rope to the silk parachute that was packed neatly in a
little swinging bucket over the side of his basket. Under his hand was
his map board, repeating the shapes of wood and water and road
below. The telephone wire that ran down his mooring rope abolished
any effect of isolation; it linked him directly to his winch on a lorry
below, to a number of battery commanders, to an ascending series of
headquarters; he could always start a conversation if he had anything
practical to say. He was, in fact, an eye at the end of a tentacle thread,
by means of which the British army watched its enemies. Sometimes
he had an illusion that he was also a kind of brain. When distant
visibility was good he would find himself hovering over the war as a
player hangs over a chessboard, directing fire upon road movements
or train movements, suspecting and watching for undisclosed enemy
batteries, or directing counter-battery fire. Above him, green and
voluminous, hung the great translucent lobes of his gas bag, and the
loose ropes by which it was towed and held upon the ground swayed
and trailed about his basket.
It was on one of his more slack afternoons that Peter fell thinking
of how acutely he now desired to live. The wide world was full of
sunshine, but a ground haze made even the country immediately
below him indistinct. The enemy gunners were inactive, there came
no elfin voices through the telephone, only far away to the south
guns butted and shivered the tranquil air. There was a faint drift in
the air rather than a breeze, and the gas bag had fallen into a long,
lazy rhythmic movement, so that sometimes he faced due south and
sometimes south by east and so back. A great patch of flooded
country to the north-east, a bright mirror with a kind of bloom upon
it, seemed trying with an aimless persistency to work its way towards
the centre of his field of vision and never succeeding.
For a time Peter had been preoccupied with a distant ridge far
away to the east, from which a long-range gun had recently taken to
shelling the kite balloons towards evening as they became clear
against the bright western sky. Four times lately this new gun had
got on to him, and this clear and tranquil afternoon promised just
the luminous and tranquil sunset that favoured these unpleasant
activities. It was five hours to sunset yet, but Peter could not keep his
mind off that gun. It was a big gun; perhaps a 42 centimetre; it was
beyond any counter-battery possibility, and it had got a new kind of
shell that the Germans seemed to have invented for the particular
discomfort of Peter and his kind. It had a distinctive report, a loud
crack, and then the “whuff” of high explosive, and at every explosion
it got nearer and nearer to its target, with a quite uncanny certainty.
It seemed to learn more than any gun should learn from each shot. It
was this steadfast approach to a hit that Peter disliked. That and the
long pause after the shell had started. Far away he would see the
flash of the gun amidst the ridges in the darkling east. Then would
come a long, blank pause of expectation. For all he could tell this
might get him. Then the whine of the shell would become audible,
growing louder and louder and lower and lower in note; Phee-whoo!
Crack! WHOOF! Then Peter would get quite voluble to the men at
the winch below. He could let himself up, or go down a few hundred
feet, or they could shift his lorry along the road. Until it was dark he
could not come down, for a kite balloon is a terribly visible and
helpless thing on the ground until it has been very carefully put to
bed. To come down in the daylight meant too good a chance for the
nearer German guns. So Peter, by instructing his winch to lower him
or let him up or shift, had to dodge about in a most undignified way,
up and down and backwards and sideways, while the big gun marked
him and guessed at his next position. Flash! “Oh, damn!” said Peter.
“Another already!”
Silence. Anticipations. Then: Phee—eee—eee—whoo. Crack!
WHOOF! A rush of air would set the gas bag swinging. That was a
near one!
“Where am I?” said Peter.
But that wasn’t going to happen for hours yet. Why meet trouble
half way? Why be tormented by this feeling of apprehension and
danger in the still air? Why trouble because the world was quiet and
seemed to be waiting? Why not think of something else? Banish this
war from the mind.... Was he more afraid nowadays than he used to
be? Peter was inclined to think that now he was more systematically
afraid. Formerly he had funked in streaks and patches, but now he
had a steady, continuous dislike to all these risks and dangers. He
was getting more and more clearly an idea of the sort of life he
wanted to lead and of the things he wanted to do. He was ceasing to
think of existence as a rather aimless series of adventures, and
coming to regard it as one large consecutive undertaking on the part
of himself and Joan. This being hung up in the sky for Germans to
shoot at seemed to him to be a very tiresome irrelevance indeed. He
and Joan and everybody with brains—including the misguided
people who had made and were now firing this big gun at him—
ought to be setting to work to get this preposterous muddle of a
world in order. “This sort of thing,” said Peter, addressing the
western front, his gas bag, and so much of the sky as it permitted him
to see, and the universe generally, “is ridiculous. There is no sense in
it at all. None whatever.”
His dream of God, as a detached and aloof personage, had taken a
very strong hold upon his imagination. Or, perhaps, it would be truer
to say that his fevered mind in the hospital had given a caricature
personality to ideas that had grown up in his mind as a natural
consequence of his training. He had gone on with that argument; he
went on with it now, with a feeling that really he was just as much
sitting and talking in that queer, untidy, out-of-the-way office as
swaying in a kite balloon, six thousand feet above Flanders, waiting
to be shot at.
“It is all very well to say ’exert yourself,’” said Peter. “But there is
that chap over there exerting himself. And what he is doing with all
his brains is just trying to wipe my brains out of existence. Just that.
He hasn’t an idea else of what he is doing. He has no notion of what
he is up to or what I am up to. And he hasn’t the sense or ability to
come over here and talk about it to me. He’s there—at that—and he
can’t help himself. And I’m here—and I can’t help myself. But if I
could only catch him within counter battery range——!
“There’s no sense in it at all,” summarized Peter, after some
moments of grim reflection. “Sense hasn’t got into it.”
“Is sense ever going to get into it?
“The curious thing about you,” said Peter, addressing himself quite
directly to his Deity at the desk, “is that somehow, without ever
positively promising it or saying anything plain and definite about it,
you yet manage to convey in an almost irresistible manner, that there
is going to be sense in it. You seem to suggest that my poor brain up
here and the brains of those chaps over there, are, in spite of all
appearance to the contrary, up to something jointly that is going to
come together and make good some day. You hint it. And yet I don’t
get a scrap of sound, trustworthy reasoning to help me to accept that;
not a scrap. Why should it be so? I ask, and you just keep on not
saying anything. I suppose it’s a necessary thing, biologically, that
one should have a kind of optimism to keep one alive, so I’m not
even justified in my half conviction that I’m not being absolutely
fooled by life....
“I admit that taking for example Joan, there is something about
Joan that almost persuades me there must be something absolutely
right about things—for Joan to happen at all. Yet isn’t that again just
another biologically necessary delusion?... There you sit silent. You
seem to say nothing, and yet you soak me with a kind of answer, a
sort of shapeless courage....”
Peter’s mind rested on that for a time, and then began again at
another point.
“I wonder,” said Peter, “if that chap gets me tonight, what I shall
think—in the moment—after he has got me....”
 § 24
But the German gunner never got Peter, because something else
got him first.
He thought he saw a Hun aeroplane coming over very high indeed
to the south of him, fifteen thousand feet up or more, a mere speck in
the blue blaze, and then the gas bag hid it and he dismissed it from
his mind. He was thinking that the air was growing clearer, and that
if this went on guns would wake up presently and little voices begin
to talk to him, when he became aware of the presence and vibration
of an aeroplane quite close to him. He pulled off his telephone
receivers and heard the roar of an engine close at hand. It was
overhead, and the gas bag still hid it. At the same moment the British
anti-aircraft gunners began a belated fire. “Damn!” said Peter in a
brisk perspiration, and hastened to make sure that his parachute
rope was clear.
“Perhaps he’s British,” said Peter, with no real hope.
“Pap, pap, pap!” very loud overhead.
The gas bag swayed and billowed, and a wing with a black cross
swept across the sky. “Pap, pap, pap.”
The gas bag wrinkled and crumpled more and more, and a little
streak of smoke appeared beyond its edge. The German aeroplane
was now visible, a hundred yards away, and banking to come round.
He had fired the balloon with tracer bullets.
The thing that Peter had to do and what he did was this. He had to
step up on to a little wood step inside his basket. Then he had to put
first one foot and then the other on to another little step outside his
basket. This little step was about four inches wide by nine long.
Below it was six thousand feet of emptiness, above the little trees and
houses below. As he swayed on the step Peter had to make sure that
the rope attached to his body was clear of all entanglements. Then he
had to step off that little shelf, which was now swinging and slanting
with the lurching basket to which it was attached, into the void, six
thousand feet above the earth.
 He had not to throw himself or dive headlong, because that might
lead to entanglement with the rope. He had just to step off into
pellucid nothingness, holding his rope clear of himself with one
hand. This rope looped back to the little swinging bucket in which his
fine silk parachute was closely packed. He had seen it packed a week
ago, and he wished now, as he stood on his step holding to his basket
with one hand, that he had watched the process more meticulously.
He became aware that the Hun, having disposed of the balloon, was
now shooting at him. He did not so much step off the little shelf as
slip off as it heeled over with the swing of the basket. The first
instants of a leap or fall make no impression on the mind. For some
seconds he was falling swiftly, feet foremost, through the air. He
scarcely noted the faint snatch when the twine, which held his
parachute in its basket, broke. Then his consciousness began to
register again. He kept his feet tightly pressed together. The air
whistled by him, but he thought that dreams and talk had much
exaggerated the sensations of falling. He was too high as yet to feel
the rush of the ground towards him.
He seemed to fall for an interminable time before anything more
happened. He was assailed by doubts—whether the twine that kept
the parachute in its bucket would break, whether it would open. His
rope trailed out above him.
Still falling. Why didn’t the parachute open? In another ten
seconds it would be too late.
The parachute was not opening. It was certainly not opening.
Wrong packing? He tugged and jerked his rope, and tried to shake
and swing the long silken folds that were following his fall. Why?
Why the devil——?
The rope seemed to tighten abruptly. The harness tightened upon
his body. Peter gasped, sprawled and had the sensation of being
hauled up back again into the sky....
It was all right, so far. He was now swaying down earthward with a
diminishing velocity beneath an open parachute. He was floating
over the landscape instead of falling straight into it.
But the German had not done with Peter yet. He became visible
beneath the edge of Peter’s parachute, circling downward regardless
of anti-aircraft and machine-guns. “Pap, pap, pap, pap.” The bullets
burst and banged about Peter.
Something kicked Peter’s knee; something hit his neck; something
rapped the knuckles of his wounded hand; the parachute winced and
went sideways, slashed and pierced. Peter drifted down faster,
helpless, his angry eyes upon his assailant, who vanished again,
going out of sight as he rose up above the edge of the parachute.
A storm of pain and rage broke from Peter.
“Done in!” shouted Peter. “Oh! my leg! my leg!
“I’m shot to bits. I’m shot to bloody bits!”
The tree tops were near at hand. The parachute had acquired a
rhythmic swing and was falling more rapidly.
“And I’ve still got to land,” wailed Peter, beginning to cry like a
child.
He wanted to stop just a moment, just for one little moment,
before the ground rushed up to meet him. He wanted time to think.
He didn’t know what to do with this dangling leg. It became a
monstrous, painful obstacle to landing. How was he to get a spring?
He was bleeding. He was dying. It was cruel. Cruel.
Came the crash. Hot irons, it seemed, assailed his leg and his
shoulder and neck. He crumpled up on the ground in an agony, and
the parachute, with slow and elegant gestures, folded down on the
top of his floundering figure....
The gunners who ran to help him found him, enveloped in silk,
bawling and weeping like a child of four in a passion of rage and fear,
and trying repeatedly to stand up upon a blood-streaked leg that
gave way as repeatedly. “Damn!” cursed Peter in a stifled voice,
plunging about like a kitten in a sack. “Damn you all! I tell you I will
use my leg. I will have my leg. If I bleed to death. Oh! Oh!... You fool
—you lying old humbug! You!”
And then he gave a leap upward and forward, and fainted and fell,
and lay still, with his head and body muffled in the silk folds of his
parachute.
CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH
OSWALD’S VALEDICTION
 §1

I t was the third of April in 1918, the Wednesday after Easter, and
the war had now lasted three years and eight months. It had
become the aching habit of the whole world. Throughout the winter
it had been for the most part a great and terrible boredom, but now a
phase of acute anxiety was beginning. The “Kaiser’s Battle” was
raging in France; news came through sparingly; but it was known
that General Gough had lost tens of thousands of prisoners,
hundreds of guns, and vast stores of ammunition and railway
material. It was rumoured that he had committed suicide. But the
standards of Tory England differ from those of Japan. Through ten
sanguinary days, in a vaster Inkerman, the common men of Britain,
reinforced by the French, had fought and died to restore the
imperilled line. It was by no means certain yet that they had
succeeded. It seemed possible that the French and British armies
would be broken apart, and Amiens and Paris lost. Oswald’s mind
was still dark with apprehension.
The particular anxieties of this crisis accentuated the general
worry and inconveniences of the time, and deepened Oswald’s
conviction of an incredible incompetence in both the political and
military leadership of his country. In spite of every reason he had to
the contrary, he had continued hitherto to hope for some bright
dramatic change in the course of events; he had experienced a
continually recurring disappointment with each morning’s paper.
His intelligence told him that all the inefficiency, the confusion, the
cheap and bad government by press and intrigue, were the necessary
and inevitable consequences of a neglect of higher education for the
past fifty years; these defects were now in the nature of things,
almost as much as the bleakness of an English February or the fogs
of a London November, but his English temperament had refused
hitherto to accept the decision of his intelligence. Now for the first
time he could see the possibility of an ultimate failure in the war. To
this low level of achievement, he perceived, a steadfast contempt for
thought and science and organization had brought Britain; at this
low level Britain had now to struggle through the war, blundering,
talking, and thinking confusedly, suffering enormously—albeit so
sound at heart. It was a humiliating realization. At any rate she could
still hope to struggle through; the hard-won elementary education of
the common people, the stout heart and sense of the common
people, saved her gentlefolk from the fate of their brother inefficients
in Russia. But every day he fretted afresh at the costly and toilsome
continuance of an effort that a little more courage and wisdom in
high places on the allied side, a little more knowledge and clear
thinking, might have brought to an entirely satisfactory close in 1917.
For a man of his age, wounded, disappointed, and a chronic
invalid, there was considerable affliction in the steadily increasing
hardships of the Fourth Year. A number of petty deprivations at
which a healthy man might have scoffed, intensified his physical
discomfort. There had been a complete restriction of his supply of
petrol, the automobile now hung in its shed with its tyres removed,
and the railway service to London had been greatly reduced. He
could not get up to London now to consult books or vary his moods
without a slow and crowded and fatiguing journey; he was more and
more confined to Pelham Ford. He had been used to read and work
late into the night, but now his home was darkened in the evening
and very cheerless; there was no carbide for the acetylene
installation, and a need for economy in paraffin. For a time he had
been out of coal, and unable to get much wood because of local
difficulties about cartage, and for some weeks he had had to sit in his
overcoat and read and write by candlelight. Now, however, that
distress had been relieved by the belated delivery of a truckload of
coal. And another matter that may seem trivial in history, was by no
means trivial in relation to his moods. In the spring of 1918 the food
supply of Great Britain was at its lowest point. Lord Rhondda was
saving the situation at the eleventh hour. The rationing of meat had
affected Oswald’s health disagreeably. He had long ago acquired the
habit of living upon chops and cutlets and suchlike concentrated
nourishment, and he found it difficult to adapt himself now to the
bulky insipidity of a diet that was, for a time, almost entirely
vegetarian. For even fish travels by long routes to Hertfordshire
villages. The frequent air raids of that winter were also an added
nervous irritation. In the preceding years of the war there had been
occasional Zeppelin raids, the Zeppelins had been audible at Pelham
Ford on several occasions and once Hertford had suffered from their
bombs; but those expeditions had ended at last in a series of
disasters to the invaders, and they had never involved the uproar and
tension of the Gotha raids that began in the latter half of 1917. These
latter raids had to be met by an immense barrage of anti-aircraft
guns round London, a barrage which rattled every window at Pelham
Ford, lit the sky with star shells, and continued intermittently
sometimes for four or five hours. Oswald would lie awake throughout
that thudding conflict, watching the distant star shells and
searchlights through the black tree boughs outside his open window,
and meditating drearily upon the manifest insanity of mankind....
He was now walking up and down his lawn, waiting until it should
be time to start for the station with Joan to meet Peter.
For Peter, convalescent again and no longer fit for any form of
active service—he was lamed now as well as winged—was to take up a
minor administrative post next week at Adastral House, and he was
coming down for a few days at Pelham Ford before carrying his wife
off for good to a little service flat they had found in an adapted house
in the Avenue Road. They had decided not to live at The Ingle-Nook,
although Arthur had built it to become Peter’s home, but to continue
the tenancy of Aunts Phyllis and Phœbe. They did not want to
disturb those two ladies, whose nervous systems, by no means stable
at the best of times, were now in a very shaken condition. Aunt
Phyllis was kept busy restraining Aunt Phœbe from inflicting lengthy
but obscure prophetic messages upon most of the prominent people
of the time. To these daily activities Aunt Phœbe added an increasing
habit of sleep-walking that broke the nightly peace of Aunt Phyllis.
She would wander through the moonlit living rooms gesticulating
strangely, and uttering such phrases as “Blood! Blood! Seas of blood!
The multitudinous seas incarnadine”; or “Murder most foul!”
She had a fixed idea that it was her business to seek out the Kaiser
and either scold him or kill him—or perhaps do both. She held that it
was the duty of women to assassinate. Men might fight battles, it was
their stupid way; but surely women were capable of directer things. If
some woman were to kill any man who declared war directly he
declared war, there would be a speedy end to war. She could not, she
said, understand the inactivity of German wives and mothers. She
would spend hours over her old school German grammar, with a
view to writing an “Open Letter to German Womankind.” But her
naturally rich and very allusive prose was ill adapted to that sort of
translation.
Many over-sensitive people were suffering more or less as Aunt
Phœbe was suffering—from a sense of cruelty, wickedness, and
disaster that staggered their minds. They had lived securely in a
secure world; they could not readjust. Even for so sane a mind as
Oswald’s, hampered as it was by the new poison his recent wound
had brought into his blood, readjustment was difficult. He suffered
greatly from insomnia, and from a haunting apprehension of
misfortunes. His damaged knee would give him bouts of acute
distress. Sometimes it would seem to be well and he would forget it.
Then it would become painfully lame by day and a neuralgic pain at
night. His moods seemed always exaggerated now; either he was too
angry or too sorrowful or too hopeful. Sometimes he experienced
phases of blank stupidity, when his mind became unaccountably
sluggish and clumsy....
Joan was indoors now packing up a boxful of books that were to go
with her to the new home.
He was feeling acutely—more acutely than he wanted to feel—that
his guardianship was at an end. Joan, who had been the mistress of
his house, and the voice that sang in it, the pretty plant that grew in
it, was going now—to return, perhaps, sometimes as a visitor—but
never more to be a part of it; never more to be its habitual presence.
Peter, too, was severing the rope, a long rope it had seemed at times
during the last three years, that had tethered him to Pelham Ford....
Oswald did not want to think now of his coming loneliness. What
he wanted to think about was the necessity of rounding off their
relationship properly, of ending his educational task with some sort
of account rendered. He felt he owed it to these young people and to
himself to tell them of his aims and of what he considered the whole
of this business of education amounted to. He had to explain what
had helped and what had prevented him. “A Valediction,” he said. “A
Valediction.” But he could not plan out what he had to say that
morning. He could not arrange his heads, and all the while that he
tried to fix his thoughts upon these topics, he was filled with
uncontrollable self-pity for the solitude ahead of him.
He was ashamed at these personal distresses that he could not
control. He disliked himself for their quality. He did not like to think
he was thinking the thoughts in his mind. He walked up and down
the lawn for a time like a man who is being pestered by uncongenial
solicitations.
In spite of his intense affection for both of them, he was feeling a
real jealousy of the happiness of these two young lovers. He hated
the thought of losing Joan much more than he hated the loss of
Peter. Once upon a time he had loved Peter far more than Joan, but
by imperceptible degrees his affection had turned over to her. In
these war years he and she had been very much together. For a time
he had been—it was grotesque, but true—actually in love with her.
He had let himself dream—. It was preposterous to think of it. A
moonlight night had made his brain swim.... At any rate, thank
Heaven! she had never had a suspicion....
She’d come now as a visitor—perhaps quite often. He wasn’t going
to lose his Joan altogether. But each time she would come changed,
rather less his Joan and rather more a new Joan—Peter’s Joan....
Some day they’d have children, these two. Joan would sit over her
child and smile down at it. He knew exactly how she would smile.
And at the thought of that smile Joan gave place to Dolly. Out of the
past there jumped upon him the memory of Peter bubbling in a
cradle on the sunny verandah of The Ingle-Nook, and how he had
remarked that the very sunshine seemed made for this fortunate
young man.
“It was made for him,” Dolly had said, with that faintly
mischievous smile of hers.
How far off that seemed now, and how vivid still! He could
remember Dolly’s shadow on the rough-cast wall, and the very things
he had said in reply. He had talked like a fool about the wonderful
future of Peter—and of the world. How long was that ago? Five-and-
twenty years? (Yes, Peter would be five-and-twenty in June.) How
safe and secure the European world had seemed then! It seemed to
be loitering, lazily and basely indeed, but certainly, towards a sort of
materialist’s millennium. And what a vast sham its security had
been! He had called Peter the “Heir of the Ages.” And the Heritage of
the Ages had been preparing even then to take Peter away from the
work he had chosen and from all the sunshine and leisure of his life
and to splinter his shoulder-blade, smash his wrist, snap his leg-
bones with machine-gun bullets, and fling him aside, a hobbling,
stiff, broken young man to limp through the rest of life....
 §2
That was what his mind had to lay hold of, that was what he had to
talk about, this process that had held out such fair hopes for Peter
and had in the end crippled him and come near to killing him and
wasting him altogether. He had to talk of that, of an enormous
collapse and breach of faith with the young. The world which had
seemed to be the glowing promise of an unprecedented education
and upbringing for Peter and his generation, the world that had
been, so to speak, joint guardian with himself, had defaulted. This
war was an outrage by the senior things in the world upon all the
hope of the future; it was the parent sending his sons through the
fires to Moloch, it was the guardian gone mad, it was the lapse of all
educational responsibility.
He had to keep his grasp upon that idea. By holding to that he
could get away from his morbidly intense wish to be personal and
intimate with these two. He loved them and they loved him, but what
he wanted to say was something quite beyond that.
What he had to talk about was Education, and Education alone. He
had to point out to them that their own education had been
truncated, was rough ended and partial. He had to explain why that
was so. And he had to show that all this vast disaster to the world
was no more and no less than an educational failure. The churches
and teachers and political forms had been insufficient and wrong;
they had failed to establish ideas strong and complete enough and
right enough to hold the wills of men. Necessarily he had to make a
dissertation upon the war. To talk of life now was to talk of the war.
The war now was human life. It had eaten up all free and
independent living.
The war was an educational breakdown, that was his point; and in
education lay whatever hope there was for mankind. He had to say
that to them, and he had to point out how that idea must determine
the form of their lives. He had to show the political and social and
moral conclusions involved in it. And he had to say what he wanted
to say in a large manner. He had to keep his temper while he said it.
 Oswald, limping slowly up and down his lawn in the April
sunshine, with a gnawing pain at his knee, had to underline, as it
were, that last proviso in his thoughts. That was the extreme
difficulty of these urgent and tragic times. The world was in a phase
of intense, but swift, tumultuous, and distracting tragedy. The
millions were not suffering and dying in stateliness and splendour
but in a vast uproar, amidst mud, confusion, bickering, and
incoherence indescribable. While it was manifest that only great
thinking, only very clear and deliberate thinking, could give even the
forms of action that would arrest the conflagration, it was
nevertheless almost impossible for any one anywhere to think clearly
and deliberately, so universal and various were the compulsions,
confusions, and distresses of the time. And even the effect to see and
state the issue largely, fevered Oswald’s brain. He grew angry with
the multitudinous things that robbed him of his serenity.
“Education,” he said, as if he called for help; “education.”
And then, collapsing into wrath: “A land of uneducated
blockheads!”
No! It was not one of his good mornings. In a little while his steps
had quickened and his face had flushed. His hands clenched in his
pockets. “A universal dulness of mind,” he whispered. “Obstinacy....
Inadaptability.... Unintelligent opposition.”
Broad generalizations slipped out of his mind. He began to turn
over one disastrous instance after another of the shortness of mental
range, the unimaginative stupidity, the baseness and tortuousness of
method, the dull suspicions, class jealousies, and foolish conceits
that had crippled Britain through three and a half bitter years. With a
vast fleet, with enormous armies, with limitless wealth, with the loyal
enthusiasm behind them of a united people and with great allies,
British admirals and generals had never once achieved any great or
brilliant success, British statesmen had never once grasped and held
the fluctuating situation. One huge disappointment had followed
another; now at Gallipoli, now at Kut, now in the air and now
beneath the seas, the British had seen their strength ill applied and
their fair hopes of victory waste away. No Nelson had arisen to save
the country, no Wellington; no Nelson nor Wellington could have
arisen; the country had not even found an alternative to Mr. Lloyd
George. In military and naval as in social and political affairs the
Anglican ideal had been—to blockade. On sea and land, as in Ireland,
as in India, Anglicanism was not leading but obstruction.
Throughout 1917 the Allied armies upon the Western front had
predominated over the German as greatly as the British fleet had
predominated at sea, and the result on either element had been
stagnation. The cavalry coterie who ruled upon land had
demonstrated triumphantly their incapacity to seize even so great an
opportunity as the surprise of the tanks afforded them; the Admiralty
had left the Baltic to the Germans until, after the loss of Riga, poor
Kerensky’s staggering government had collapsed. British diplomacy
had completed what British naval quiescence began; in Russia as in
Greece it had existed only to blunder; never had a just cause been so
mishandled; and before the end of 1917 the Russian debacle had
been achieved and the German armies, reinforced by the troops the
Russian failure had released, began to concentrate for this last great
effort that was now in progress in the west. Like many another
anxious and distressed Englishman during those darker days of the
German spring offensive in 1918, Oswald went about clinging to one
comfort: “Our men are tough stuff. Our men at any rate will stick it.”
In Oswald’s mind there rankled a number of special cases which he
called his “sores.” To think of them made him angry and desperate,
and yet he could scarcely ever think of education without reviving the
irritation of these particular instances. They were his foreground;
they blocked his vistas, and got between him and the general
prospect of the world. For instance, there had been a failure to
supply mosquito curtains in the East African hospitals, and a number
of slightly wounded men had contracted fever and died. This fact had
linked on to the rejection of the services he had offered at the outset
of the war, and became a festering centre in his memory. Those
mosquito curtains blew into every discussion. Moreover there had
been, he believed, much delay and inefficiency in the use of African
native labour in France, and a lack of proper organization for the
special needs of the sick and injured among these tropic-bred men.
And a shipload had been sunk in a collision off the Isle of Wight. He
had got an irrational persuasion into his head that this collision
could have been prevented. After his wound had driven him back to
Pelham Ford he would limp about the garden thinking of his “boys”
shivering in the wet of a French winter and dying on straw in cold
cattle trucks, or struggling and drowning in the grey channel water,
and he would fret and swear. “Hugger mugger,” he would say,
“hugger mugger! No care. No foresight. No proper grasp of the
problem. And so death and torment for the men.”
While still so painful and feverish he had developed a new distress
for himself by taking up the advocacy of certain novelties and devices
that he became more and more convinced were of vital importance
upon the Western front. He entangled himself in correspondence,
interviews, committees, and complicated quarrels in connection with
these ideas.... He would prowl about his garden, a baffled man, trying
to invent some way of breaking through the system of entanglements
that held back British inventiveness from the service of Great Britain.
More and more clearly did his reason assure him that no sudden
blow can set aside the deep-rooted traditions, the careless, aimless
education of a negligent century, but none the less he raged at
individuals, at ministries, at coteries and classes.
His peculiar objection to the heads of the regular army, for
example, was unjust, for much the same unimaginative resistance
was evident in every branch of the public activities of Great Britain.
Already in 1915 the very halfpenny journalists were pointing out the
necessity of a great air offensive for the allies, were showing that in
the matter of the possible supply of good air fighters the Germans
were altogether inferior to their antagonists and that consequently
they would be more and more at a disadvantage in the air as the air
warfare was pressed. But the British mind was trained, so far that is
as one can speak of it as being trained at all, to dread “over-
pressure.” The western allies having won a certain ascendancy in the
air in 1916 became so self-satisfied that the Germans, in spite of their
disadvantages, were able to recover a kind of equality in 1917, and in
the spring of 1918 the British, with their leeway recovered, were
going easily in matters aerial, and the opinion that a great air
offensive might yet end the war was regarded as the sign of a froward
and revolutionary spirit.
The sea war had a parallel history. Long before 1914 Dr. Conan
Doyle had written a story to illustrate the dangers of an unrestricted
submarine attack, but no precaution whatever against such a
possibility seemed to have been undertaken by the British Admiralty
before the war at all; Great Britain was practically destitute of sea
mines in the October of 1914, and even in the spring of 1918, after
more than a year and a half of hostile submarine activity, after the
British had lost millions of tons of shipping, after the people were on
short commons and becoming very anxious about rations, the really
very narrow channel of the North Sea—rarely is it more than three
hundred miles wide—which was the only way out the Germans
possessed, was still unfenced against the coming and going of these
most vulnerable pests.
It is hard not to blame individual men and groups when the affairs
of a nation go badly. It is so much easier to change men than
systems. The former satisfies every instinct in the fierce, suspicious
hearts of men, the latter demands the bleakest of intellectual efforts.
The former justifies the healthy, wholesome relief of rioting; the
latter necessitates self-control. The country was at sixes and sevens
because its education by school and college, by book and speech and
newspaper, was confused and superficial and incomplete, and its
education was confused and superficial and incomplete because its
institutions were a patched-up system of traditions, compromises,
and interests, devoid of any clear and single guiding idea of a
national purpose. The only wrongs that really matter to mankind are
the undramatic general wrongs; but the only wrongs that appeal to
the uneducated imagination are individual wrongs. It is so much
more congenial to the ape in us to say that if Mr. Asquith hadn’t been
lazy or Mr. Lloyd George disingenuous——! Then out with the halter
—and don’t bother about yourself. As though the worst of individuals
can be anything more than the indicating pustule of a systemic
malaise. For his own part Oswald was always reviling schoolmasters,
as though they, alone among men, had the power to rise triumphant
over all their circumstances—and wouldn’t. He had long since
forgotten Mr. Mackinder’s apology.
He limped and fretted to and fro across the lawn in his struggle to
get out of his jungle of wrathful thoughts, about drowned negroes
and rejected inventions, and about the Baltic failure and about
Gough of the Curragh and St. Quentin, to general and permanent
things.
“Education,” he said aloud, struggling against his obsessions.
“Education! I have to tell them what it ought to be, how it is more or
less the task of every man, how it can unify the world, how it can save
mankind....”
 And then after a little pause, with an apparent complete
irrelevance, “Damn Aunt Charlotte!”
 §4
Nowadays quite little things would suddenly assume a tremendous
and devastating importance to Oswald. In his pocket, not folded but
crumpled up, was an insulting letter from Lady Charlotte Sydenham,
and the thought of it was rankling bitterly in his mind.
The days were long past when he could think of the old lady as of
something antediluvian in quality, a queer ungainly megatherium
floundering about in a new age from which her kind would presently
vanish altogether. He was beginning to doubt more and more about
her imminent disappearance. She had greater powers of survival
than he had supposed; he was beginning to think that she might
outlive him; there was much more of her in England than he had
ever suspected. All through the war she, or a voice indistinguishable
from hers, had bawled unchastened in the Morning Post; on many
occasions he had seemed to see her hard blue eye and bristling
whisker glaring at him through a kind of translucency in the sheets of
The Times; once or twice in France he had recognized her, or
something very like her, in red tabs and gilt lace, at G.H.Q. These
were sick fancies no doubt; mere fantastic intimations of the stout
resistances the Anglican culture could still offer before it loosened its
cramping grip upon the future of England and the world, evidence
rather of his own hypersensitized condition than of any perennial
quality in her.
The old lady had played a valiant part in the early stages of the
war. She had interested herself in the persecution of all Germans not
related to royalty, who chanced to be in the country; and had even
employed private detectives in one or two cases that had come under
her notice. She had been forced most unjustly to defend a libel case
brought by a butcher named Sterne, whom she had denounced as of
German origin and a probable poisoner of the community, in the
very laudable belief that his name was spelt Stern. She felt that his
indubitable British ancestry and honesty only enhanced the
deception and made the whole thing more alarming, but the jury,
being no doubt tainted with pacifism, thought, or pretended to think,