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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).
Letter to an oil company regarding sludge formation in a gearbox and the unsuitability of their Hi-Press oil.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 145\2\  scan0074
Date  27th September 1935
  
X1231

Exptl. Dept.

Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls}15/KW.

27th September,1935.

Messrs. C.C. Wakefield & Co.Ltd.,
Wakefield House,
30-32 Cheapside,
LONDON, E.C.2.

For the attention of Mr. Evans.

Dear Sirs,

We are sending you a sample of some sludge collected from a gearbox that had run about 8,000 miles on your light Hi-Press Oil. The sludge had collected chiefly underneath the plungers of the synchromesh mechanism, thereby preventing their proper functioning.

This box has frequently attained a temperature of 105°C. on the road. We think you will find that most of the deposit is a mixture of copper sulphide and copper chloride.

A further test we have done is to insert a piece of steel and a piece of copper in some Hi-Press oil, in one case at room temperature and in the other case at 100°C. In the first case no deposit has formed, but in the second case the copper is covered with a thick black coating.

We should be glad to have your views on this trouble because as it stands this oil is quite unsuitable for use in a gearbox.

Yours faithfully,

FOR ROLLS-ROYCE LIMITED.
  
  


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