Introduction

What does the word mean? It is derived from the Greek word TRtsos meaning rubbing, so that a literal translation would be ‘the science of rubbing’. The word is so new as to appear in only the latest editions of dictionaries where it is there defined as ‘the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion and of related subjects and practices’. This latter definition, although embracing the literal translation, is of even wider significance and was created to bring together the interest in friction and wear of chemists, engineers, metallurgists, physicists and the like. This wide-ranging concern with tribology immediately illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. In a sense it is the name alone which is new because man’s interest in the constituent parts of tribology is older than recorded history. Clearly, the invention of the wheel illustrates man’s concern with reducing friction in translationary motion, and this invention certainly predates recorded history. That man should have been so concerned with the tribological problems of friction and wear is not surprising because our involvement with such phenomena affects almost every aspect of our lives.