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).
Extract from a letter to the editor of 'MOTOR TRACTION' regarding lubricating oil supplies.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 32\3\ Scan046 | |
| Date | 8th November 1920 | |
| COPY. Extract from the "MOTOR TRACTION" November 8th, 1920. To the Editor. Sir, LUBRICATING OIL SUPPLIES. The recent session of the Empire Motor Fuels Committee held at Olympia did much to draw attention to the present unsatisfactory fuel position, and remedies for dealing with it. There is, however, one very important matter, which was entirely overlooked, or probably it is hardly fair to say this, as it did not come within the scope of the committee. I refer to the matter of lubricating oils. While attention has been largely focussed on liquid fuels, very little thought appears to have been given to the lubricating oil position, which at the present time is even more serious than that of fuel. Owners of motor vehicles will hardly need to be reminded of the extremely high prices now being charged for lubricating oils, but probably they are not aware as to how much this is bound up with the present demand for and shortage of liquid fuels. Internal combustion engines can be constructed to run on many different types of fuel, both liquid and solid, but whatever fuel is used, they must have lubrication, and it is time that some action was taken to safeguard the supplies of lubricating oils. The increasing and wasteful use of heavy oil fuel on steam driven ships has many times been criticised, and there is little doubt but what this, among other users, is having a very great effect on the lubricating oil position, as it must undoubtedly pay the oil companies much better to sell these heavy fuels in their relatively crude state than to extract lubricating oils from them. Another point is that the extending practice of cracking the heavy fractions, in order to produce a greater yield of petrol, is also reducing the yield of lubricating oil very seriously; and quite apart from the question of price, it is undoubtedly of the first importance to reduce the consumption of lubricating oil as much as possible. Many engines are relatively wasteful in lubricating oil, and little can be done in altering this, but in engines of new design this should be very carefully considered. To attempt to economise in lubricating oil by simply reducing the lubrication of existing engines is to court serious trouble, but much could be done to make the present lubricating oil go considerably further than it now goes. Many years ago, in making experiments on the lubrication of steam engines using highly superheated steam, I found that very remarkable results could be achieved by adding a certain quantity of graphite to the lubricating oil. At that time graphite of suitable quality was almost unobtainable, and the addition of unsuitable graphite produced effects very similar to that of emery or other abrasive material, and I therefore had to abandon the matter. Some years later, however, graphite in a suitable form became available - I allude to Acheson's deflocculated graphite. I proved in actual practice in both steam and internal combustion engines, that it is possible to save quite 50% of the lubricating oil with safety, and that once the working parts have received a coating of graphite, lubrication can be reduced to quite a remarkable extent. | ||