Tribologist David Tabor Dies In Cambridge

Dr. David Tabor, widely acknowledged along with F. Philip Bowden as a key figure behind the science of modern tribology as a serious and separate area of study, died recently in Cambridge, UK. He was 92. Although friction had been studied over the centuries by DaVinci, Amontons, Coloumb, and others, it was Tabor and Bowden who brought resources, focus, and modern scientific techniques to bear. Tribology is the branch of physics dedicated to the study of friction, lubrication and wear. To the bearing industry, tribology is the single most important field of study, research and application; driving every aspect of the field -- along with its sister, the lubricant industry -- worldwide. Working on his 1939 PhD thesis, The Area of Contact Between Stationary and Moving Surfaces, David Tabor caught the attention of Physics Professor Philip Bowden at Cambridge, and the two began collaborating. When World War II began in 1939, Tabor and Bowden set up a laboratory in Australia, dedicated to the study of physics, friction and lubrication in bearings. The lab was named "Tribophysic," for the Greek tribos, meaning "rubbing." In 1946, after the war, the tribology laboratory moved back to Cambridge. The laboratories firmly established modern tribology as a serious area of scientific research, with almost unlimited applications. The labs brought together a variety of key findings, among them a better understanding of Van der Waals forces, and an angstrom-level apparatus to measure Van der Waals forces. The Cambridge lab also developed related technologies, such as the high-speed cameras needed to study the friction effects. In 1950, Bowden and Tabor published the classic, The Friction and Lubrication of Solids, -- still in print today and a must-read milestone -- explaining and broadening the understanding of friction and material interactions at the molecular level. Today, it is difficult to appreciate the stir it created, hailed as no less than, "the beginning of a new epoch in the study of friction and lubrication." It was Mr. Tabor who originally coined the term "tribology" to define the field, which is truly interdisciplinary, arching across physics, materials, chemistry, and all the way to practical engineering. Professor Bowden died in 1968, and Professor Tabor took over his leadership position at the Cambridge labs. Through the years, Professor Tabor was honored with a many and various prestigious awards, including a fellowship in the Royal Society to a Royal Medal of the Royal Society. He was Professor of Physics at Cambridge and headed its Cavendish Lab, and Fellow of Cambridge's Gonville and Caius College. In 1998, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, "For contributions to the theory of tribology, hardness, and surface physics." A related article, Friction at the Nano Scale, published in the February 2005 issue of Physics World delves into more detail about the most recent developments in atomic-scale tribology. The author coined the term, "nanotribology," back in 1991. Bowden and Tabor's The Friction and Lubrication of Solids, is available from Amazon.com and many other bookstores.