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).
Unsuitability of brass radiator tubes in the Western US due to alkaline water, proposing tests and comparing materials.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 38\2\ Scan110 | |
| Date | 28th July 1920 | |
| H14 c./HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} Jo.F.C. COPY. X.3456. BY8/H28.7.20. X-3678 RADIATOR. X 3456 We have received a cable through London, from OY. in which he states that brass tubes for Radiators are not usable in the Western States of America, owing to the fact that the water is of an alkaline nature. We are not of the opinion that any water which can be used for domestic purposes is sufficiently alkaline to effect a brass article, and we therefore want you to carry out some tests on brass radiator tubes, which can be obtained from the Radiator Dept., with the object of treating them with slightly alkaline water. The amount of alkali present in the water should be varied from a small amount up to some point at which it does begin to attack the brass tube by eating away the zinc. The copper tube which America are pressing for is too soft for us to agree to adopt unless the brass tube has proved to be absolutely faulty. This last conclusion, however, has never been reached in England, as the opposite opinion holds, namely, that the only really good tube for a honeycomb radiator, is one made in drawn brass. BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} RECEIVED AUG 2 E C | ||