Background
Schallamach was born in 1905 in Poznan, Poland.
Schallamach was born in 1905 in Poznan, Poland.
In 1929 Schallamach received his Diplom Ingenieur in electrical engineering, having studied at technical high schools in Zurich and Breslau. He completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of Breslau in 1934 but had to leave Germany as a Jewish refugee before receiving his degree. He was only able to receive his doctorate officially in 1948 from the University of Braunschweig after Breslau had become Polish.
He died on 22 June 1997. After immigrating to the United Kingdom, Schallamach obtained a position at the Davy Faraday Laboratory of the Royal Institution, researching crystal structure at low temperatures. In 1943, he joined the British Rubber Producers" Research Association as a Research Physicist.
He initially studied the dielectric properties of elastomers, but soon was called on to pursue studies into the friction and abrasion properties of rubber.
His developments included a viscoelastic theory of friction that explained the observed rate dependence of rubber friction in terms of molecular arguments. Also, he observed the occurrence of Schallamach waves during abrasion experiments, and he provided an explanation for them in terms of the elastic instability of the elastomer surface.
He was inducted into the International Rubber Science Hall of Fame in 1998.