SILICONES: a consideration of some factors relative to their use as lubricants

ALTHOUGH the element silicon is second only to oxygen in order of abundance in the earth's crust the chemistry of its compounds and in particular of organo‐silicon compounds had developed but little before the turn of the century. It is true that the German chemist Friedel and his students Crafts and Ladenburg and later Polis prepared a few isolated organo‐silicon compounds during the latter half of the nineteenth century (1863–1886), but the land mark in this field is undoubtedly the classical work of Professor F. S. Kipping and his school at University College, Nottingham. This work extended over nearly forty years from 1899 to 1937 during which time a systematic study was made of this branch of chemistry.