R. A. Salaman, also known as Ralph, was born in Barley, Hertfordshire into a well-established Anglo-Jewish family. His father was Doctor Redcliffe N. Salaman Federal Reserve System, the botanist who wrote The History and Social Influence of the Potato. His mother Nina (née Davis) was a writer and poet.
He attended Bedales School and then studied engineering at Cambridge.
His work recorded the tools used during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries in Britain. After university Raphael Salaman set up his own light-engineering company in London. During the Second World War he went to work for Marks and Spencer, organizing air-raid precautions (ARP) and fire-fighting.
After the war he continued to work for the retailer.
His job involved travelling around Britain, which gave him the opportunity to collect tools. He collected hand tools related to trades that were becoming less common, including those of wheelwrights, coopers, farriers, saddlers and dairy workers.
His interest in tools was more than a hobby. He contributed to scholarly research.
In 1959 he worked on a piece entitled, The Wheelwright"s Art in Ancient China with Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-Djen.
After retiring he wrote two books on hand tools that have become standard reference works and are in the holdings of many libraries worldwide. The first, Dictionary of Woodworking Tools, was first published in 1975. His other book Dictionary of Leather-working Tools, c.
1700–1950, and the Tools of Allied Trades first came out in 1986. of hand tools was bought by Street Albans Museums Service.
Participant of the collection was on display for many years at the Museum of Street Albans. In 2010 it was removed from permanent exhibition.
The tools remain in the reserve collection of the Museum Service. Some of his catalogues, price lists, books and drawings featured in an auction sale organized by David Stanley and held in Loughborough in 1987.
