Letter from F. H. Royce to Mr. Ricardo discussing the testing of a compound oil in a lighting engine and a 20 HP car.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\J\January1923\ Scan77 | |
| Date | 16th January 1923 | |
| COPIES TO:- RG. {Mr Rowledge} HS. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} WD. {Mr Wood / Mr Whitehead} ROY. {Mr H. Royce - Buyer} ORIGINAL RECEIVED "ELMSTEAD(Henry Royce's home in West Wittering)" WEST WITTERING(Henry Royce's home town). CHICHESTER. 16th January 1923. R2/M16123. H.R. Ricardo Esq., Messrs Ricardo & Co.(Engineers) Ltd. Bridge Works. Shoreham. SUSSEX. Dear Mr. Ricardo, We safely received the oil you so kindly sent, and have tested it on a very critical little lighting engine which I have here. In this case it has worked extremely well: there is very little difference however in the power of the engine when warm. It is slightly in favour of this oil compared with fairly thin Price's Gas engine oil. I was very interested to hear that it was a compound oil, and a simple examination led me to think that it was compounded with lard oil, and if so, is extremely interesting, as a similar oil was requisitioned by me in 1908 to be made up, of a first quality mineral oil, with 10% of lard for universal use throughout the RR. works, for oiling the line shafts and machinery, the reason being that I feared that they would have considerable wear and destruction to machinery by the use of an inefficient, and cheap oil of entirely mineral origin. The remainder of the oil I am putting into a 20.HP. 6 cylinder RR. car, similar to the one I brought over to your Works last year. This being a rather high speed engine it will I think shew up the benefits of a more fluid oil, more so than our larger car, where the engine runs about two thirds the speed. Again thanking you. Yours very sincerely, (Sgd) F. {Mr Friese} H. {Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} ROYCE. | ||
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).