by

University College London, UK

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About the Author

The author s first car, a 1932 Riley 9 Falcon. Its many ailments included metal fatigue failures in a gearbox selector fork, timing gear teeth, a half shaft, and a suspension spring. Modern cars are much better in that metal fatigue failures are very unusual.

Leslie Philip (Les) Pook was born in Middlesex, England in 1935. He obtained a BSc in metallurgy from the University of London in 1956. He started his career at Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd, Coventry in 1956. In 1963 he moved to the National Engineering Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgow. In 1969, while at the National Engineering Laboratory, he obtained a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Strathclyde. Dr Pook moved to University College London in 1998. He retired formally in 1998 but remained affiliated to University College London as a visiting professor.