Draft document outlining the evolution of bearing alloys in response to increasing engine power.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\3\ scan0090 | |
| Date | 1st November 1936 guessed | |
| DRAFT. 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 power 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 throughout this period, but the overall external dimensions of the engine, and, therefore, its weight, have remained substantially the same the whole time. At almost every stage of power increase some formidable 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 | ||
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).