21
Aug
The need to reduce friction is ancient, traced back to dragging sleds across land and log rollers to move heavy objects. Early lubricants included animal fats, olive oil and naturally occurring crude oils. Animal tallow provided an effective, widely available lubricant for basic wood and metalworking machinery during early industrialization. Lard oil was also common in steam engines, mills, pumps, and other equipment. Advances in Petroleum Lubricants Sinopec noted that the drilling of the first commercial oil wells in the mid-1800s provided abundant crude oil to refine into lamp oil, fuel oil and lubricants. Solvent extraction and distillation processes developed…