University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

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.