One Step Close by Attempting to Understand the Fundamentals.

Recently in IQuest we have been asked to get a book about, or related to, our internship. My book, as suggested by my mentor, is Lubrication Fundamentals by J. George Wills. Let me tell you from the start, this book is NOT easy. I know the name already sounds difficult but the text is even more confusing. For an Engineer this book is obviously just the basics but for a Ambitious High School student, it's written in a different language! Even though it is difficult I'm not letting it discourage me from pursuing my goals.

I was serious when I said it was difficult. This is "A simplified flow diagram for a commercial dewaxing unit"

Get ready to step into my world:

Chapter one of this book is to familiarize or refresh the educated reader's memory on lubricating oils and crude oils in general. It gives a background on Petroleum; where and how it occurs. I was also informed how the petroleum was quite annoying but people found that they could sell it for "medicinal purposes". Later the author explains when greases and lubricants were first used and how the brine well drilling that opened up lots of petroleum to the world in the 1850's first began.

The second chapter informs you about lubricating oils and the petroleum industry, which was the largest in the world as early as 1976! Then Wills explains what crude oil is, where it is found and what is put into production. You may not have known that crude oils are found in a variety of types from light to black oils and asphalts. Also one of the key factors in crude oil selection is based off of the crude's pour point and how light it is! (Although very light crudes wouldn't be used for lube because only a small portion of it has a high enough boiling point.) I'll spare you the rest of the chapter because it took me 3 times to sortof understand the chapter and I have the actual text right in front of me.

Even though this book is very difficult to understand I know I will benefit from reading it. The author clearly has been studying and working with petroleum for a long time and I'm sure reading his book, even if I don't completely understand it, will put me ahead of the competition while I'm in college. Who else has the opportunity to read an advanced book (not a textbook) about engineering before college to get them ready? I doubt other students went out on their own and found books as challenging as this one and decided they would read it to prepare them for college. You can look at this 2 ways. One with a positive outlook saying it is beneficial; challenging yet rewarding. The other saying it is too hard and you should just pretend to read it. 

I will always choose the former.

Wish me luck!