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).
Enquiry into fuel quality and the subsequent revision of the D.T.D.134 specification to include benzole.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27a\4\ Scan034 | |
| Date | 2nd December 1932 guessed | |
| 2. We called for a full enquiry, stating that our object was solely to show that our fuel had not varied perceptibly between 1929 and the present date. The Ministry agreed to this enquiry and a series of co-operative engine tests were instituted, between us we employed all known fuel test engines including the Series 30, the Delco, the C.F.R. (Horning), the Armstrong and the E.35 (Ricardo) - we also procured samples of spirit ranging from 1929 to the present day. The result of this enquiry and several official conferences at the Ministry proved that Shell supplied to D.T.D.134 Specification had not varied perceptibly over the three years under consideration, and that our present supplies, i.e. those complained of, were, if anything, slightly better (2% benzene) than the supplies originally accepted and passed by the Ministry's own test engine at South Kensington, Laboratory in 1929. It also became evident that some present day Service aero engines required a higher anti-knock fuel than our D.T.D.134 - and also that the present Ministry test engine and test operating methods set up a higher anti-knock standard than those set up in 1929 (when present published standard was agreed). Thus it was perfectly clear that all along we had been supplying Shell D.T.D.134 fuel complying fully with the requirements laid down in 1929. Considerable discussion then arose as to whether the responsibility for supplying fuel to the changed test conditions - or the somewhat loosely worded specification, lay with the suppliers of the fuel or the Air Ministry. No decisions reached on this point, but the Ministry immediately decided to set to work revising the D.T.D.134 Specification - and in the interim asked us to increase the anti-knock value of our fuel by the addition of 10% benzole, to which we agreed but only in response to the exigencies of the Service and without prejudice as to which party eventually bore the accompanying price increase. The present position then is that we shall supply all D.T.D.134 fuel with 10% benzole added until such time as the Ministry issue the new specification. (Continued) | ||