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).
Internal memorandum discussing potential patent infringement and design specifications for combustion chambers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 123\5\ scan0048 | |
| Date | 11th August 1938 | |
| Typed Text: -2- 303592 We do not think that we can be held to infringe this Specification because it is a feature of the invention that the ignition plug is placed in the hottest part of the combustion chamber which is near the exhaust valve, whereas in our Case the ignition plug is placed close to the inlet valve. Figure 6, however, of this Specification would, in our view, prevent us getting a patent relying only on an inclined inlet valve unless we are prepared to add some further distinction. If we are content to make positioning of the ignition plug a feature of the first claim we shall, in our view, avoid this Patent. 319810 In our view we shall not infringe this patent because the walls of our combustion chamber are not continuously curvilinear. In this Case there is not illustrated an inclined inlet valve in combination with an exhaust valve placed in the bottom of the combustion chamber, so that it should not interfere with our getting a patent. 349610 This is a modification of 319810 and in our view we shall not infringe it by reason of the curvilinear configuration of the combustion chamber in this Case. Figure 11 will, however, prevent us obtaining a patent unless we either introduce into our claim this different construction of combustion chamber or make a feature as before suggested of the position of the ignition plug. We would recommend the latter distiction and will draft a Complete Specification accordingly. Handwritten Text: [Left Margin]: Recommend we include position of spark plug also valve not hitting piston [Bottom]: If Walmough can get his patent Ricardo's must be rather thin Rms | ||