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).
Technical discussion on oil pump systems, comparing Cadillac's approach and proposing a test of a Kingston tank.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 40\3\ Scan038 | |
| Date | 7th October 1925 | |
| Oy1-E-10725 -2- October 7th, 1925. out the oil pump (but not with intake vacuum). The oil pump could not I imagine be used with an Autovac or Stewart tank without infringing patents. Cadillac, who are the only people besides ourselves to stick to the pressure feed, are testing the Kingston tank with vacuum produced by their ordinary air pump (which is a ported "2 cycle" pump). The only change they have had to make is to couple the air line to the intake of the pump instead of the outlet, and take the air from the delivery valve to some part of the engine that can do with spits of lubrication, as oil is blown from the pump with the air. This can readily be done by us in exactly the same way and we are proposing to couple up a Kingston tank on 102 CX{Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager} in just this way, connecting the outlet of the air pump to the three ignition distribution gears to lubricate them. This scheme does not have the feature of automatically stopping the engine when the oil level falls, but I doubt whether this is a really good feature anyway. It cannot compare with R's scheme of slowing the engine down but still leaving it runnable, by the ignition servo. (For example on 102-CE we broke the oil sump cover on a block of ice at 2 o'clock on a winter night. The Kingston system would have stalled the car, but we drove home slowly 20 miles without oil, and did no harm to the engine.) The principle of the Kingston system is shown in blue print herewith. The valve is really double, consisting of a needle valve which is small enough for the float to open against the vacuum, and a big flat valve which is opened by the float as soon as the vacuum is broken. A stand pipe directly above the valve shown on page 2 of the larger booklet, conducts the air from the bottom tank through the gasoline in the top tank without excessive bubbling. The fuel which enters the top tank pours into cup E and overflows. As the tank fills up air is compressed in the upper part of the diving | ||