The cavitation inception in oil hydraulic pipeline was investigated experimentally and numerically. In the experiment, negative pressures below-1 MPa(absolute pressure) were measured, associated with the transient flows in oil hydraulic pipeline. These experimental results show that the common hydraulic oil in the experimental pipeline withstands large tensions. In order to interpret the experimental results on cavitation inception, the growth of a spherical bubble in viscous compressible fluid due to a stepwise pressure drop was investigated by numerical analysis, and the critical bubble radius was obtained. The calculated value of the critical bubble radius corresponding to the negative pressure measured in the experiment is so small that the premised conditions about the bubble shape in the analysis is unsatisfactory. The physical significance of this calculated result implies the fact that there hardly exist free bubbles which can act as cavitation nuclei in the experimental pipeline.