Lubricants

History

Lubricants have been in some use for thousands of years. Calcium soaps have been identified on the axles of chariots dated to 1400 BC. Building stones were slid on oil-impregnated lumber during the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. In the Roman era, lubricants were based on olive oil and rapeseed oil, as well as animal fats. The development of lubrication accelerated in the Industrial Revolution to match the rise of metal-based machinery. Whale oil was a historically important lubricant, with some uses up to the latter part of the 20th century as a friction modifier additive for automatic transmission fluid. Relying initially on natural oils, needs for such machinery shifted toward petroleum-based materials early in the 1900s. A breakthrough came with the development of vacuum distillation of petroleum, as described by the Vacuum Oil Company. This technology allowed the purification of very non-volatile substances, which are common in many lubricants.