When was grease invented

Through World War I and II, automobiles, aircrafts, diesel locomotives, missiles, and large vessels have been rapidly developed, driving the advancement of oil refining and lubricating products. A solvent refining method was invented in the s and the use of additives to enhance the performance of lubricants proliferated across the industries in the s. In the s, as a jet liner was introduced, the development of lubricants that work well even at the temperature lower than 50 degrees below zero was needed, resulting in the emergence of synthetic oil and multi-purpose oil.

A hydrocracking method was developed in the s and the more advanced hydroisomerization method was discovered in the s, allowing the development and production of a wide range of high-quality lubricants using mineral oil which can compete with fully synthetic oil.

Recently, environmental factors as well as performance are mainly considered to choose lubricants, and industry stakeholders including chemists, engineers, oil refinery industry, and metallurgists continue research in upgrading the performance of lubricating products. Toggle navigation Toggle search. Magazine Subscribe Today!

Current Issue Archive Advertise. For instance, we are interested in documenting discoveries and historical events relating to: Lubricant additives Base oil types, including synthetics Grease and thickeners Application equipment oil rings, oil cups, grease guns, etc.

Filters and contamination control devices Discoveries of lubricant physical and chemical properties Lubricant test instruments and methods Noteworthy inventors, people and companies that were involved in lubrication Lubrication theories and discoveries in tribology Interesting and amusing anecdotes in lubrication history Terminology for instance, do you know what Oscar Zerk helped to invent?

References Vowles, H. Jim Fitch. Jim Fitch, a founder and CEO of Noria Corporation , has a wealth of experience in lubrication, oil analysis, and machinery failure investigations. He has advise Read More. Related Articles. Featured Videos. Atten2 S Oil Wear 2. This was the first evidence of ancient rudimentary bearings and a thrust bearing, which is a bearing designed to support direct loads while rotating around its axle. Animal fats and their basic variants continued to be utilized for mechanical lubrication at the start of the Common Era.

In A. During the Middle Ages, from the 5th to the 10th centuries, animal fats were known to be used to lubricate the mechanisms for opening the gates of castles and on carriage wheels carrying kings and queens.

The first new changes were reported in 8th century Norway, in the year A. At this time, Viking warriors and maritime adventurers were known to be expert boat builders. They created ships known as drakkars, a term derived from the word dragon. Raiders decorated and used these large ships.

This new type of oil was obtained from the blubber of whale stomachs. The 15th century marked the beginning of improved commercial ship navigation.

As a result, whale oil saw continued use in lubricating the pulleys and rudders of ships. It also knew shipbuilders to have used ancient oil methods that had been around for millennia known as rock oil, mineral oil and naphtha oil flammable oils containing various distilled hydrocarbons.

As civilization continued to develop in Italy through the 15th and 16th centuries, some of the greatest revolutionary minds developed inventions and mechanical tools. One person of note from this time was the great Leonardo da Vinci, who was responsible for developing giant projects that contributed to the advance of mechanical lubrication, such as the catapult and the excavator, among many others.

Throughout his life, Leonardo studied the problem of friction. This led to the formulation of the laws of dry friction. He continued to study friction across horizontal and inclined planes, along with wear on slide bearings. These investigations resulted in his first and second friction laws. In , he changed the rolling bearing, replacing the moving connection between the two parts with a mechanism that used balls to reduce rolling friction.

His conclusion was that friction was reduced when the balls did not touch, which led to his development of separator elements to let the balls move freely. As iron and brass replaced wood for many heavy-use machine parts, animal fat oils proved to no longer be adequate. People began to experiment with a mixture of animal and vegetable oils, and some that were developed and are still in use today, such as tallow, olive oil, castor oil vegetable oil pressed from castor beans , peanut oil, and rapeseed oil canola.

Following the 16th century, whale oil from whale blubber use continued, and porpoise oil, retrieved from the body, head, or jaw of a porpoise, came into the picture. French physicist and governor of Lille, Guillaume Amontons, conducted extensive research on mixed friction. In the 17th and 18th centuries, French natural philosopher John Theophilus Desaguliers developed a tribology model that detailed the effect of cohesion and adhesion on friction.

He defined the concept of higher frictional force on well-polished surfaces, as two well-polished surfaces placed together might prove difficult to separate. In the 18th century, Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler studied the impact of inclined planes on friction, which he determined to be double. This was followed by English horse carriage axles becoming fitted with ball bearings, which required lubrication. With the Industrial Revolution beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries, mechanization of industry and transportation became a reality.

As the textile machinery industry expanded, so did the use of lubricants to ensure the smooth functioning of the machines. Mineral oils from shale and coal were extracted through distillation and refined into petroleum.

We can trace crude oil, or unrefined petroleum, being used as a lubricant back to and a cotton spinning mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The mill owner experimented with this oil by mixing it with the sperm oil he had used to lubricate his spindles. Sperm oil is a waxy liquid that comes from sperm whales. The mill owner discovered the new concoction to be better than just using sperm oil and continued to use it secretly for ten years. On August 27, , former American train driver and businessman Colonel William Drake struck oil , marking the birth of the American petroleum industry in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

The first oil well was drilled twenty-one meters deep, and soon, 3, liters of oil were being extracted daily. Petroleum-based oils were not accepted on their own as they did not perform like many of the animal-based products. That was until vacuum distillation—or reduction under pressure—showed that useful fractions could be separated without the heavier product oxidizing and deteriorating. As the 19th century progressed, it became common practice to lubricate the bearings of trains every kilometers.

In , McCoy invented an automatic lubricator that was used to apply oil through a drip cup to locomotive and ship steam engines. As machinery and technology continued to develop further, so did the use of industrial lubrication. Bearings and slideways used liquid lubricants, advancing from solid lubrication grease precursors. Because of supply and demand, inexpensive lubricants comprising mineral oils were mass produced. This was the first attempt at a synthetic lubricant alternative.

Between and , new theories on hydrodynamic lubrication came to light. This was because extensive research showed that adding a lubricated film separated the surfaces of machinery, reducing friction and preventing wear. The added pressure split the two forces apart, coining the phrase hydrodynamic lift. This device became the basis for those used on almost every car, truck, plane, and other mechanized vehicle today.

Powerful cannons and machines came into heavy use in the 20th century, during the World Wars. Lubricants became even more essential to ensure that these devices continued to work in battle. As new technologies emerged, so did more new industrial lubricant concoctions that aimed to minimize friction and increase the life of equipment.

In , when flying their first aircraft, the Wright brothers used lubrication techniques to get more power than expected and take flight, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.