Chris J. Marone

This book was instrumental in helping me see the connections between the early work done on friction and the modern friction constitutive laws that have been a big part of my research over the past 15 years. Before I read this book, I had not realized that C. A. Coulomb worked on time dependence of friction as part of his studies leading to the famous papers in 1781-1785. Coulomb's experiments were extremely simple and elegant. The precision he achieved is remarkable. Dowson does a wonderful job of summarizing both the experiments and the lives of the investigators. After learning that Coulomb was abruptly transferred from Paris to a remote training facility during the height of his work in 1781, I have decided that I do not have much to complain about in my academic life.