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).
The testing of a portable priming arrangement for starting car engines and suggestions for design improvements.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 31\3\ Scan020 | |
| Date | 14th January 1915 guessed | |
| Wor{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager}/EH10/L13115. Sheet. 3 Last week end I rigged up a priming arrangement that I could take round from one car to another, I connected it up to the existing tap in the induction pipe. I tried it on 20 different cars, some of them had been standing a fortnight, others a week, but none had been run for 2 or 3 days. 17 of these cars started up on the third compression, 2 on the fourth, and one on the sixth: We cannot hope for any better results than that. I have given up the idea of allowing petrol to be drawn through the priming device to keep the engine running, we have to flood them in the usual way. As regards the non-return in this scheme, if it sticks (I have not had one do so but I have made one do it) it means that the pressure which leaks into the float chamber automatically floods the carburetter, it still pumps a little spray; Mr Nadin suggests a sort of reed valve which should be very reliable. On the arrangement I have sent to Mr Royce the valve is a flat disc, there is no attempt at ground faces. Even if we never use my scheme I think if it is possible it should be protected because it is so easily adaptable to any car and I believe the war has brought home to a lot of people the troubles of starting up and car owners will insist on a priming device. E.H. | ||