The Problem of Obtaining Reliable Adhesion

The first law of adhesion states that all atoms adhere. Therefore we would expect that blocks of material placed in good contact should stick together. This idea had been studied by Tyndall in 1875 and investigated further by Budgett in 1911. The objective was to show that adhesion between flat plates could be larger than that expected from atmospheric pressure. 

It was clear that measuring adhesion of flat, clean surfaces was doomed to failure. 

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