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 and use of various lubricating oils, including lard, mineral, and sperm oil, for machinery.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 76\4\ scan0177 | |
| Date | 9th September 1919 | |
| - 2 - It is now again possible to obtain supplies of pure lard oil; in fact, at Mr.Lupton's request, we recently purchased two barrels for test and it was found that W.B.Dick & Co's Compounded Lard Oil gave quite equal results to the pure lard oil. For lubrication of General Machinery in Works we used for several years prior to the War, Mineral Lubricating Oil, supplied by the Dee Oil Co.,Liverpool, with satisfactory results. In April,1918, Mr.Feskett reported machines were gumming up. We reported the matter to the Dee Oil Co. who attributed the trouble to their inability to obtain adequate supplies of fatty oils and they offered a pure Mineral Oil, which was tested and condemned by us. We thereupon applied to W.B.Dick & Co.Ltd. who supplied an oil compounded of a good mineral base with about 10% lard oil and, after making exhaustive tests, same was adopted and has been used with satisfaction ever since. I have had a pretty long experience of the use of lubricants in quick running textile machinery and long ago I came to the conclusion that mineral oil could not be considered to be a lubricant at all in the ordinary sense of the term, but only a vehicle which could be profitably used to convey some other perfect lubricant to the right place. For this reason, I have always insisted that any lubricating oil with a mineral base should contain a certain percentage, not less than 10%, of a good vegetable or animal oil. I believe that, at the present time, the high speed spindles of spinning frames running at 10,000 to 12,000 revolutions per minute are lubricated either with pure sperm oil or a mixture of sperm and good mineral oil. Wd.{Mr Wood/Mr Whitehead} | ||