engineering

Peter Jost

Peter Jost is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter Jost rather than just read about it. In short: (Hans) Peter Israel Jost, CBE (25 January 1921 – 7 June 2016) was a British mechanical engineer. He was the founder of the discipline of tribology, the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion.

Key takeaways

Peter Jost belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter Jost to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter Jost from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

(Hans) Peter Israel Jost, CBE (25 January 1921 – 7 June 2016) was a British mechanical engineer. He was the founder of the discipline of tribology, the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. In 1966, Jost published a report which highlighted the cost of friction, wear and corrosion to the United Kingdom economy (1.1-1.4% of GDP). It was in this eponymous report that he coined the term tribology, which has now been widely adopted.

Early life and education Jost was born in Berlin, son of merchant Leo Jost, and Margot (née Jacoby), both of Jewish descent. He was educated at Liverpool Technical College and Manchester College of Technology.

Career Jost was an apprentice at Associated Metal Works, Glasgow, then at Napier and Sons in Liverpool, where he won the Sir John Larking medal for a paper on measurement of surface finish. At 29, he became general manager of Trier Brothers, an international lubricants company, of which he subsequently became director. Here he developed an innovative method of lubricating steam machinery, which saved energy and water by preventing scaling of boiler tubes. By 1960, he was lubrication consultant to iron, steel and tinplate producers Richard Thomas and Baldwins; he went on to serve as a director and chairman of several technology and engineering companies, including K. S. Paul Ltd, producers of solid lubricants, and Engineering & General Equipment Ltd. He served on numerous industry councils, and until his death was president of the International Tribology Council and a life member of the council of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee.

Awards and recognition The Royal Academy of Engineering noted that "there can hardly be another British engineer with more worldwide honours and decorations". He was appointed a CBE in 1969, and was also honoured by the heads of state of France, Germany, Poland, Austria and Japan, and in 1992 became the first honorary foreign member of the Russia Academy of Engineering. He received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon honour from Japan in 2011, the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class in 2001, and the Order of Merit Cross, First Class from Germany. He held two honorary professorships and 11 honorary doctorates including, in January 2000, the first Millennium honorary science doctorate. He was an honorary fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institute of Materials. He was awarded the International Award from the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers in 1997. Shortly before his death, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering but he died before the Academy's AGM at which this was announced. He established The Peter Jost Charitable Foundation which promotes the advancement of public education in science and technology through teaching and research, particularly the increase of public knowledge in tribology. In 2020, the International Tribology Council established the Peter Jost Tribology Award for mid-career tribologists. The inaugural winner of the award was Professor Daniele Dini from Imperial College London, who will be presented the award at the 7th World Tribology Congress in 2022.

Personal life In 1948, Jost married Margaret Josephine, daughter of Michael Kadesh. They had two daughters.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Jost

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Jost claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter Jost before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter Jost ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter Jost

In research: Peter Jost appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter Jost in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter Jost is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2016 deaths, 20th-century British mechanical engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Jost outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peter Jost in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter Jost means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter Jost out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Jost in simple terms?

Why does Peter Jost matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter Jost?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter Jost.