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).
Petrol deterioration in fuel tanks and a proposed warning for customers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 103\5\ scan0164 | |
| Date | 16th February 1939 | |
| - 2 - The question of the amount of petrol in a tank is important, because the effect is proportional to the surface exposed and to the bulk of the liquid, so that if one had a tank half full, which means that the surface exposed is great and the bulk of the liquid small, then the effect would be inversely proportional to the quantity of petrol, that is to say, if we had four gallons in a tank which would hold 16, and when it was full there was the same surface exposed, which incidentally there is not, then the amount of gum in the four gallons would be four times as great as in the full sixteen gallon tank. We propose to put an insert in our instruction book to warn customers, reading as follows :- "OWING TO THE FACT THAT MOTOR SPIRITS UNDERGO DETERIORATION WITH TIME, IT IS UNDESIRABLE TO KEEP FUEL TANKS HALF FILLED WITH FUEL IN A WARM ATMOSPHERE, SUCH AS A SHOWROOM OR GARAGE. TANKS SHOULD BE KEPT EMPTY WHEN IT IS KNOWN THAT THE CAR WILL BE LAID UP FOR A PERIOD OF THREE MONTHS OR MORE." BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} | ||