From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter to General Motors discussing variable pitch fans and pressure cooling systems.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 149a\3\ scan0228 | |
| Date | 17th November 1938 | |
| 1278 Experimental Dept. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Std.4/MH.{M. Huckerby} 17th. November 1938. L.P. Saunders, Esq., Harrison Radiator Division, General Motors Corporation, Lockport, New York, U.S.A. Dear Mr. Saunders, Many thanks for your letter of Sept. 9th., which I found very interesting indeed, and for the information which you passed on to our Dr. Llewelyn Smith when he visited your plant - you certainly managed to impress him with the extent and thoroughness of your investigations into all problems connected with heat transfer. Referring to various points mentioned in your letter, we would very much like to have drawings showing the construction of the variable pitch fan which you mentioned, as it sounds the sort of thing we are looking for - actually we are about to test a fan with flexible blades, which we have designed and which we hope will turn the fan horsepower/ engine speed curve into something more nearly resembling a straight line. We are very interested in your remarks about pressure cooling and would like to know how you got over the valve difficulty - the writer did some work on this and was only able to get a really reliable seal with a rubber seated valve - even then sticking of the valve sometimes occurred. Do you use a metal seating valve on your pressure cooled systems and what type of seating is used - also do you consider it necessary to use a two-way valve - we tried one but dispensed with it in favour of a sample blow off one-way valve which causes a partial vacuum in the system after cooling - this does not seem to have any ill effects. | ||