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 Vauxhall Motors regarding engine design, including automatic tappet adjusters and valve types.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 127\4\ scan0115 | |
| Date | 6th April 1938 | |
| 1097. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}3/R.{Sir Henry Royce} 6th April, 1938. A.{Mr Adams} Taub, Esq., Vauxhall Motors Ltd., L U T O N. Beds. Dear Taub, I enjoyed seeing your 'Palace of Engineering'. Its magnificence was almost overwhelming. We are going ahead trying out your automatic tappet adjuster. I would like to know, however, what exactly is the angle of attack of the rocker on a valve. This is not clear from your detail drawings. Have you any further descriptive matter on the exact theory of the device ? It is most regrettable that the side valve engines will not realise that they are fundamentally inferior to overhead valves. The thing that interested me most was that Buicks do not yet seem to have eclipsed everyone by the modification to the overhead valve engine. We are going ahead trying out some more of your volume control theories on the single cylinder. As a pre- liminary and inexpensive test, we are going to modify the head which you admired and put a dome piston in the cylinder. If it shows any promise, we shall make up another single cylinder, and take the job a little more seriously, making the head as good as we know how. We cannot get, exactly, your picture of progress- ive increase in volume from the spark plug points, and cannot quite see how you get a curve that shape unless your spark plugs are a very long way in the cylinder. Anyhow, we shall be glad if you will let us know whether you think it is worth testing the approximation we have made, or, | ||