XV. Experiments on the friction and abrasion of the surfaces of solids

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Abstract
The paper now offered to the consideration of the Royal Society, comprises the results of part of a series of experiments undertaken in the year 1825, with a view to determine the measure of the retardations of bodies in motion, when affected by the attrition of their surfaces, and by mediums of different densities. From the attention that has hitherto been paid to this important branch of mechanical science, and from the many elaborate dissertations and experiments that have appeared at different periods, it would naturally be concluded, that the subject had been so fully elucidated, as to admit of little if any further in­vestigation: but the diversity of opinions still prevalent among philosophers, and the difficulty of reducing to a satisfactory state the doctrines already ad­vanced, incline me to the opinion that the subject is as yet but imperfectly understood. This may be attributed in a great degree to the very defective state of our knowledge of the properties of materials, and the difficulty or rather impossibility of subjecting them to geometrical mensuration. The science of mechanics considers forces as reduced to the simple questions of mathematical analysis, without regard to the properties of matter or the phænomena incident thereto: but in rendering forces sensible, we are necessarily compelled to make use of agents, or intermediate bodies termed machines, the employment of which in transmitting motion, in modifying its action, or in re­storing the equilibrium between forces of different intensities, constitutes the object of every mechanical operation. The solution of this question therefore involves the conditions of equilibrium, both of simple and compound machines; the transmission of motion under different circumstances; the construction and combination of the different parts of machines, and the properties of the ma­terials of which these parts are composed.

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