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).
Properties, knock rating, and issues of Koolmotor alcohol blend fuel.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27a\4\ Scan113 | |
| Date | 8th May 1933 | |
| N1282 To Roy.{Sir Henry Royce} from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} c. to Rg.{Mr Rowledge} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/KT.8.5.33. KOOLMOTOR ALCOHOL BLEND. With reference to this fuel, we wrote to Mr. F.{Mr Friese} R.{Sir Henry Royce} Banks of the Ethyl Export Corp. on the subject, and the following is an extract from his reply:- "Referring to your last paragraph on the subject of "Koolmotor. The average knock rating of two or three "samples which have been collected in this area is about "76.5 on the Series 50 engine." "Some people have been quoting 80 Octane, but this figure "has generally been obtained on an Armstrong engine which "always reads at least 4 numbers too high." "From all the information we have, we do not think it is "correct that this fuel is made up from Californian spirit, "and in fact I have seen some analyses which show the "spirit to be of the "cracked" variety." "They seem to sell more of the alcohol blend in the "South of England and that around the North generally "has little or no alcohol in it, but is composed mostly "of "cracked" spirit." "It does not evade the usual water separation troubles "common to alcohol fuels, and in fact, one or two cases "of trouble have come to our notice." "To sum up, I would say that the knock rating of this "fuel varies very considerably, anything from about "70 to 77 Octane, and separation troubles are likely to "occur if it is left lying about for any length of time." As the Ethyl people are in the process of marketting a fuel of 78 Octane rating, and the present Ethyl fuel on sale is about as good as this alcohol blend fuel, we are not particularly interested in the latter. You will see from Banks' notes that it is likely to suffer from the water separation trouble, a point on which we particularly asked for information. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||