It is generally assumed that lubricants mix with crude oil on an exclusive basis. This is just one of the misconceptions unveiled and explained in this well-written book by Briton Timothy J. Hill, author and veteran professional of the United Kingdom lubricants sector.
Modern synthetic lubricants are the result of more than two centuries of research and development, realized in both academic and corporate settings, on vegetal and animal matters, carbonaceous residues, and, since the 1860s, the industrial processing of crude oil and bitumen. Lubricants have enabled the functionality of a vast array of mechanical and mechatronic artifacts, from small rudimentary devices to industrial-size apparatus. These machines are endowed with considerable cultural and social significance as historical agents in human affairs in the historiography of technology. The understanding of the dynamics of development and application of the national lubricating industrial compartment serves the histories of business, chemistry, and technology and strengthens the role of lubricants in contemporary discussions of the feasibility of phasing out fossil fuels–based goods production. With this in mind, readers will find the chapter on the emergence of the re-refining and recycling of lubricants following World War II insightful.
The author presents a finely detailed picture of the synthesis, manufacturing, and utilization of lubricants—oils, fluids, solids, semi-solids, and greases—in Great Britain and beyond, from the Industrial Revolution to the 2000s. Hill conveys clearly and comprehensively the gradual and consistent industrialization of the lubricants sector in the United Kingdom from local and global perspectives. To date, this book is the only cross-disciplinary work contributing original insights to the historiography of lubricants and refined oils in Europe.
Hill explores at every level the complexities of this industry, aiming to reconstruct the common ideas and mythologies that have simplified the history of this industrial component. The key historiographical contribution of the book resides in its demonstrating that the history of lubricating fluids cannot be circumscribed into the history of industrial chemistry and must be considered as more than a side business of petroleum refining.
The author explains the role played by lubricating science in the quest for enhanced mechanical resistance standards to increasing levels of stress (pressure, temperature, and speed) dictated by the unrelenting pursuit of the reduction of criticalities in friction, sliding, and rotation actions. In other chapters, Hill focuses attention on the fluctuation of British domestic and international demand, qualitative competition with overseas producers, export of products and know-how, and the customization of production to meet targeted markets. Ultimately, the author encourages the reader to put the significance of the history of application techniques, machines, and procedures deep in conversation with the stories of the firms, businesspeople, and practitioners as protagonists of the lubricants industry in the United Kingdom.
The book is also distinguished by its extensive biographies of industry professionals and its tracing of the influence and legacy of the major U.K. companies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Even readers familiar with the crude-oil-refining industry will find new insights here, as well as anecdotes.
The book covers in twenty-six chapters the whole period from the Industrial Revolution to the present with a sober and compelling narrative achieved through the author's mastery of primary sources. The pace of chemical research that has contributed to the making of the lubricants industry is manifest in the burgeoning number of technical journals and conference proceedings published in Great Britain and Europe. Hill skillfully combines the readings of such resources with his fifty years of employment in the industry, where he could draw on numerous oral histories. He offers a presentation suitable also for the nonacademic audience: his writing is free of jargon or historical theorizing, and events are easily contextualized within the outlines of broader economic and political histories that readers should be familiar with. Readers with an interest in the interplay between business and technology, corporate image, and U.K. popular culture will find this study useful and fascinating. Hill not only sheds light on an overlooked subject; he provides business and technology historians with a monograph that will find a place in the suggested readings for a graduate seminar on innovation and maintenance in industrial history.
The text is carefully referenced with footnotes and features a rich bibliography. The sixty pages of appendixes add much value to this book and reflect the expertise of the author. They include a wealth of historical industry statistics, economic data, comparative figures on the use of different techniques around the world, and lists of major companies at different times.
