This beryllium treatise was made possible by the expertise and hard work of members of the Joint US-UK Working Group on Beryllium (JOWOG 22), which was set up in the 1960s to allow a controlled exchange of technical information on the science and application of beryllium between the two countries. The leading roles in JOWOG 22 of Dr. Lee Roberts of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and Dr. Geoffrey Ellis ofthe Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (A WRE) at Aldermaston are particularly noteworthy. Excerpts from so me of the material in this book were presented at an international conference "Beryllium 77" in London in October 1977. The conference, which was superbly organized by Dr. John Martin and his co­ workers at A WRE, was sponsored by the Metals Society and the Institu­ tion of Metallurgists, and was particularly instructive in revealing the unexpectedly strong position of the USSR in some aspects of beryllium physical metallurgy and ductility improvement. Advance publicity for this book was also provided by presentations at the AlME 1977 annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. The presentations were co-sponsored by the Metal­ lurgy and Non-Ferrous Metals Committees at the request of committee members John E. Smugeresky and Gilbert J. London. D. Webster G. J. London vii Contents 1 • Introduction .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . .