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 to S. Smith & Sons Ltd regarding the testing of a thermostat and its bellows unit.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 156\2\ scan0061 | |
| Date | 6th April 1938 | |
| 1328 April 6th.1938 Rm {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} /Std.9/AP. Messrs S.Smith & Sons Ltd., Cricklewood Works, LONDON N.W.2. For the attention of Mr.Grose. Dear Sirs, We have run one of your thermostats to X30065/5 in a car for 10,000 miles and its functioning has been satisfactory, except that on three isolated occasions the engine outlet temperature dropped from its normal 80-85° C to 65-70°C and then returned to its normal value. We can only attribute this to some form of foreign matter becoming trapped under the valve, since we cannot repeat the trouble and there is no sign of sticking of the thermo-stat. At the end of this mileage we deliberately released the charge in order to see what position the valve would take up in case of failure of bellows unit - the valve opened approximately .093, giving a bellows free length of 1.090. We would be interested to know whether you have any record of the free length of the bellows when the unit was supplied to us, so that we can check up on whether it has altered at all - we would like to know what opening you would expect the valve to have in case of a bellows failure. Yours faithfully, FOR ROLLS-ROYCE LIMITED. | ||