The emergence of an industrial technology. a sociological study of tribology.

The Lubrication Engineering (Education and Research) Working Group coined the word 'tribology' to facilitate a new approach to the study of friction, lubrication and wear, and in order to promote an awareness of applying tribological principles in industry. The working group, chaired by H. Peter Jost, published its report (known as the Jost Report) in 1966, entitled Lubrication (Tribology): Education and Research.;The Thesis is concerned mainly with the activities of the Committee on Tribology which was set up as a result of this report. The author concentrates on three problem areas: firstly, an examination of the complicated web of interests in friction, lubrication and wear pre-dating the Jost Report, thus isolating the factors which finally prompted the then Labour Government to start the Committee on Tribology and promote the new subject, 'tribology'. Secondly, the diversity of the social structure of the tribology community is shown both to contribute to the difficulty of incorporating it within a conceptual framework in the sociology of science, and to inhibit a unified approach to the scientific study of friction, lubrication and wear. Tribology differs from most other subjects studied within the sociology of science in a number of important aspects: firstly, it is a multi-disciplinary subject, drawing upon almost all of the major scientific disciplines, secondly, despite being a new subject its earliest laws date back to Leonardo de Vinci; and thirdly, it has emerged as a result of the interest, not only from academics and learned societies, but also from industrialists and politicians. These differences have allowed the study to isolate factors not normally considered in the sociological study of scientific specialities. The Thesis finally examines the extent to which a government campaign can influence both the study and the application of tribology.