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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).
Draft document detailing the evolution of bearing alloy in response to increasing engine power output over 15 years.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 115\5\  scan0235
Date  23th January 1939 guessed
  
DRAFT. ①

THE EVOLUTION OF THE ROLLS-ROYCE
BEARING ALLOY.

Each year an endeavour is made to increase the
output which can be obtained from a given size of passenger
car
<s>power</s> engine. The attached curve shows the development which
has taken place in one particular chassis power unit produced
by Rolls-Royce Ltd. over a period of 15 years. The actual
displacement of the pistons has not remained the same through-
out this period, but the overall external dimensions of the
engine, and, therefore, its weight, have remained substant-
ially the same the whole time.

At almost every stage of power increase some formid-
able obstacle has been encountered which, for the time being,
prevented further progress. Each obstacle in turn has been
surmounted by progressive development.

In 1933, due to the steadily increasing output
extracted from the Bentley power plant, bearings became the
factor which limited further progress. The average amount
of horse-power which an engine has to develop during its
life in the hands of a customer depends very largely on the
average speeds which can be put up on the vehicle to which
it is fitted. As an example of this, when four wheel brakes
were produced the high speed touring petrol consumption of
the cars to which they were fitted dropped 15%. Exhaustive
tests failed to reveal any modifications to the carburetter
  
  


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