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).
Supercharger development, testing a Powerplus blower and investigating Rootes blowers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179b\2\ img012 | |
| Date | 7th October 1932 | |
| ORIGINAL. To R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Tr.{Capt. F. W. Turner - Finance} c. to L. Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} Hdy.{William Hardy} x4553 BEREPORT ENGINE SUPERCHARGER. Replying to R.2/M4.10.32. We have got one man Ha/Aln. who is concentrating on supercharger work. The position at the moment is that it is not much use us doing more work on the test bench until we have an engine which has been modified so that the cylinder head joint will stand up. What we are doing in the meantime is that we are running a Powerplus blower on a rig for endurance, to prove its reliability and how much oil is required. One thing which has been shewn up on the test rig is that considerable vibration comes from the Powerplus blower, which has been sufficient to break up the float on a S.U. carburetter and also causes it to flood badly. We understand Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} has already pointed out that the Powerplus is not strictly in balance. We also sent two of our men to the R.A.E. at Farnborough in order to get all the information they could from there as regards Rootes blowers. They collected a considerable amount of useful information. We have also written to the A.C. to try and borrow from the R.A.E. a Rootes type blower which has been produced in U.S.A. and which they consider is the best of its type. This blower is too large to be of any use to us (5 litre) but we ought to learn something from its construction. We have sold the Alfa Romeo car but the blower on there was not really any use to us. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||