LUBRICANT SPECIFICATIONS: PART FIVE—GREASE

Abstract

WHEN WE THINK OF LUBRICATIONS TODAY we mentally classify them into two quite distinct groups : oils and greases. This was by no means always the case, for the earliest lubricants were mechanical mixtures of solid and liquid fats and more often than not, had a grease‐like structure at ordinary temperatures, It is quite probable that the first attempts deliberately to solidify liquid lubricants were made for purely economical reasons; the need to find cheaper materials than fats like tallow. Solids such as soapstone—which is itself a lubricant—were extensively employed, but many other strange bodies were at times included; cork dust, manila pulp, naphthaline and caoutchouc all figure in the old recipes.

Citation

ELLIS, E.G. (1956), "LUBRICANT SPECIFICATIONS: PART FIVE—GREASE", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 8 No. 10, pp. 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb052413