Beauchamp Tower

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Beauchamp Tower (1845 – 1904) was an English inventor and engineer who is chiefly known for his discovery of full-film or hydrodynamic lubrication. In 1882 he was appointed by the Institute of Mechanical Engineering to study high-speed bearings and demonstrated that with a suitable supply of lubricating oil the surfaces of the bearings were separated by a continuous film of lubricant which prevented them from ever coming into contact. This fact is of crucial importance to the design of high-speed machinery.

Tower also constructed an unconventional spherical steam engine which was praised by contemporary experts and saw service powering carriage lighting dynamos on the locomotives of the Great Eastern Railway.

Tower also invented a slide-rule whose logarithmic scales were printed on metallic tapes, which were wound and unwound from one roller to another.