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 from Ethyl Export Corporation regarding a dispute over the cause of engine trouble and a circular that blamed the lead content in petrol.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 150\1\ scan0273 | |
| Date | 18th January 1937 | |
| CABLEGRAMS: ETHYLPORT, LONDON. TELEGRAMS: ETHYLPORT, SOWEST. 1282 ETHYL EXPORT CORPORATION Incorporated in the State of Delaware, U.S.A. with limited liability. THAMES HOUSE, MILLBANK LONDON, S.W.1 Telephone: VICTORIA 1441 PERSONAL. Head Office: 135 EAST 42ND STREET NEW YORK, U.S.A 18th January, 1937. W. A. {Mr Adams} Robotham Esq., Experimental Department, Messrs. Rolls-Royce Ltd., Nightingale Road, DERBY. Dear Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} , I put a call through to you this morning because we are up to the neck in trouble and queries from the oil companies and sundry other people with regard to the circular sent out by yourselves concerning the use of Ethyl petrol in your cars. The repercussion from this letter has been considerable, and other oil companies, such as Discol, are hawking it round to their customers and service stations. At the request of the oil companies I went to see Mr. Sidgreaves this afternoon, and the purpose of my 'phone call to you was to notify you that I was going to see him, and it was not my intention to go behind your back in doing this. I discussed the whole matter at length with him and told him that, frankly, we do not think this trouble is due to lead, even although we agree that lead is an irritant to the main cause. He asked me why I thought lead was not entirely to blame, and I told him that we would be out of business if a similar trouble reached these proportions in other cars. Mr. Sidgreaves also asked me to what I thought the specific trouble was due, and I told him, as I have mentioned to you before, that we thought it was due to "wet" induction and sparking plug position, where the sparking plug was placed so that any wet fuel entering over the edge of the inlet valve might be projected on to it. I added, however, that you were not necessarily in agreement with me on this, and that I myself could not be at all certain of the real cause of the trouble. The principle point at issue in my discussion with him was the second paragraph of the circular which has been sent out, and in which it is stated that the trouble is mainly due to an increase in the lead content of Ethyl petrols. This paragraph virtually puts the whole blame on to us, and we assured him that the lead content had not been increased since the beginning of 1935. He has agreed to have another circular issued to correct this paragraph, but of course the damage has now been done. I have purposely written to you at length on this because, as mentioned earlier, I do not wish you to think we are trying to work behind | ||