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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).
Journal page discussing international collaboration on detonation testing and a detailed description of the C.F.R. knock-testing apparatus.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 27a\4\  Scan070
Date  1st November 1931
  
114 REFINER AND NATURAL GASOLINE MANUFACTURER NOVEMBER, 1931

testing, as first reported a year ago, has been continued. The British group mentioned last year, which up to that time had had only an informal status, has since formally constituted itself as Standardization Committee No. 9 of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists. At the same time the membership of the group was enlarged. The proceedings of our group and theirs have been regularly interchanged.
The meeting of our sub-committee, which was held at the annual meeting of the American Petroleum Institute in 1930, was attended by two representatives of the British group, A.{Mr Adams} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Dunstan and F.{Mr Friese} H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} Garner, at which time the chief item of progress made was that everyone came into agreement on the use of heptane and octane as primary reference fuels. Later, during the winter meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers, three other representatives of the British group, C. H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} Barton, C. H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} Sprake, and R.{Sir Henry Royce} Stansfield, attended and contributed to the detonation symposium held as a part of the sub-committee activities, and they also attended a meeting of the sub-committee at which many questions relating to apparatus and method were discussed; and, insofar as the information then available permitted, suitable answers were mutually agreed upon.
Also, as a result of contacts established with Fritz Frank by H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} C. Dickinson during attendance at the World Power Congress held in Berlin during the summer of 1930, the sub-committee has recently been exchanging information and proceedings with subcommittee 48 B-1 on engine testing of the German Association for Testing Materials.

DETONATION SYMPOSIUM

The work which has constantly been going on at the Bureau of Standards and at the cooperating laboratories on evaluating some of the outstanding variables that enter into knock testing, as mentioned last year, was reported on at some length in the form of a detonation symposium held at the winter meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers in January of this year. Several papers were presented at that symposium, one of which was contributed by the British group mentioned above. These papers were later published in the Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers, where they are available. They may also be had in limited quantity from the society as separate prints bound together, along with the outline of “tentative recommended practice for conducting anti-knock tests.” The latter, in slightly revised form, constitutes Appendix II of this paper.

APPENDIX I
Description of the “C. F.{Mr Friese} R.{Sir Henry Royce}” Knock-testing Apparatus

The “C. F.{Mr Friese} R.{Sir Henry Royce}” knock-testing apparatus consists of the following essential parts:
1. Engine, which is fitted with these primary accessories:
a.{Mr Adams} Carburetor
b. Ignition equipment
c. Cooling system
2. Power-absorbing medium
3. Small direct-current generator
4. Instrumentation
5. Control panel

THE ENGINE

Essential features of the engine are: one cylinder, bore 3¼ in. and stroke 4½ in., approximating those of conventional automobile engines; compression continuously variable and covering ratios of 3:1 to more than 15:1, with variation of ratio accomplished by turning a convenient crank, and of doing so while the engine is running; one-piece cylinder construction with valves and opening for bouncing-pin element in the head; heavy fly wheel, and rugged construction throughout, particularly of piston, of connecting rod, and of crankshaft and crankshaft bearings; camshaft and other influencing elements designed for highest torque or best operation at 600 r.{Sir Henry Royce} p. m.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} In addition, the effort has been to make an engine that is cheap to build, easy to service, and which is capable of long life in spite of the severe service to which it is subjected in knock-testing work.
Supplementing the photographs, Figure 1 and 2, sectional views of the “C. F.{Mr Friese} R.{Sir Henry Royce}” engine are given in Figure 4. These views show the one-piece cylinder with large water jacket. They show how the hand crank operates through a worm and screw to raise and lower the cylinder for changing compression ratio. They show that the cylinder barrel is surrounded for support by a long and close-fitting sleeve; and that for further stability the lower end of the cylinder barrel, below the threaded collar, is piloted by a guide member inserted between the top of the crankcase and the cylinder sleeve. This system of support prevents rocking of the cylinder as compression changes are being made while the engine is running. At other times the surrounding sleeve is drawn tightly around the cylinder by a screw clamp (shown best in the front view photograph, Figure 1). Shown also (in the side section, Figure 4) are the four springs located in pockets at the top between the cylinder and the supporting sleeve which surrounds it, which take up vertical back-lash as the cylinder is being moved while the engine is running. The number of threads on the
  
  


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