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Industrial
and scientific historians have traced the first use of lubricants
(fats and greases) to Egypt, around 1650 B.C. However, it was the
"Age of Steam Power," beginning approximately 1850 that
spawned real demand for engineering advancements in lubrication
and tribology. This gave rise to a need to characterize the physical
and chemical properties of fluids used as lubricants.
If
one had to define a precise time when oil analysis begin, it was
perhaps with the experiments conducted by Sir Isaac Newton around
1687 that formed the basis for his hypothesis on viscous flow that
evolved to fluid-film lubrication. But these were primarily scholarly
investigations. It was not until 1831 when Charles Dolfuss demonstrated
a vessel filled with a fluid with a small hole in its base, noting
the time taken by the lubricant to leave the vessel, that the first
test instrument for viscosity (and perhaps oil analysis) emerged.
He referred to this time as the "index for its liquidity."
He later called the instrument a "viscometre." By the
1880s Redwood, Saybolt and Engler had advanced similar viscometers
deploying short-tube capillaries.
During
this same period other lubricant analytical methods were also commonly
used including; flash point, specific gravity and friction testing.
Fueled by the industrial revolution, the surge of interest in oil
and lubricants led to formalized studies and research programs in
the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Before
long, a throng of papers and books began to emerge into the technical
literature dealing with lubrication, friction devices and physical
properties analysis. One book in particular, published by Augustus
H. Gill in 1897, entitled "A Short Handbook on Oil Analysis,"
is regarded as the seminal work on the subject.
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Professor
Gill's Lab at M.I.T.
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Although
a professor at MIT for nearly all his career, Dr. Gill's passion
for oil and lubrication led him towards practical applications rather
than theoretical pursuits. He is credited as being the first person
in the United States (perhaps the world) to offer formal instruction
in the analysis of gases and oils. During his tenure at MIT literally
thousands of students attended courses on the subject from him.
It
was because of Professor Gill's pioneering work in oil analysis
and interest in disseminating practical knowledge through education
and publications that the ICML chose to honor him by offering an
annual award in his name. The inaugural Augustus H. Gill Award will
be presented at the Practicing Oil Analysis 2002 Conference and
Exhibition in March.
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