IV. On the theory of lubrication and its application to Mr. Beauchamp tower’s experiments, including an experimental determination of the viscosity of olive oil

Abstract

1. Lubrication, or the action of oils and other viscous fluids to diminish friction and wear between solid surfaces, does not appear to have hitherto formed a subject for theoretical treatment. Such treatment may have been prevented by the obscurity of the physical actions involved, which belong to a class as yet but little known, namely, the boundary or surface actions of fluids; but the absence of such treatment has also been owing to the want of any general laws discovered by experiment. The subject is of such fundamental importance in practical mechanics, and the opportunities for observation are so frequent, that it may well be a matter of surprise that any general laws should have for so long escaped detection.