Coatings on Molybdenum for High Temperature Sliding

The work on friction in high vacuum was started some years ago in Dr. F. P. Bowdens laboratory in Cambridge University, using an apparatus designed by the late Dr. J. E. Young. The object has been to examine the frictional behaviour of surfaces covered with known films, undisturbed by the contamination always present in a normal atmosphere. A general account of the work was given in Dr. Howe's paper at the Conference on Lubrication and Wear (1957) entitled “Vapour Lubrication and the Friction of Clean Surfaces”. Dr. Rowe was educated at Culford School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1944 and Natural Science Tripos Part II (Physics) in 1950. He wrote a thesis on “Adhesion of Clean Metals” in Dr. Bowden's laboratory at Cambridge in 1953. From 1944–46 he was engaged on miniaturisation at the Telecommunications Research Establishment and for the next two years was at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment working on cyclotron design. He currently leads a small group interested in friction, lubrication and wear, at Tube Investments Research Laboratories, Cambridge. He is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker.