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).
Different types of plating materials and fuel anti-knock properties.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 142\4\ scan0134 | |
| Date | 17th December 1927 guessed | |
| 3 PLATING (Bureau of Standards) "The use of nickel-plated steel bolts and screws in places that offer crevices where moisture can collect, notably around the windshield, and the use of ordinary steel in the windshield frame itself is quite inadequate. Those automobile designers who continue to use materials in such places that will give unsightly rust stains in a few months are doing a slovenly job." Cadmium Plating. "Like zinc, cadmium, by its electrodytic action protects small areas of exposed iron against corrosion. Because the cadmium itself is less rapidly attacked than zinc, a cadmium coating is likely to furnish protection longer than a zinc coating of equal thickness." Chromium plating. "Its hardness has led to its extensive use on gauges, which when plated with .0002" of chromium yield greater service than any other gauges so far tested." "It is a comparatively easy matter to strip off this thin coating when it begins to show wear, and to replate and relap it to exact dimensions. This not only results in great saving in cost, but also increased accuracy." "Chromium coatings, especially if thin, are usually not impervious. Chromium does not furnish protection against corrosion of steel that may be exposed through pores in the costing----" "In most cases when chromium is applied to steel that is to withstand exposure, it is preceded by copper and nickel plating." FUEL "The use of tetra-ethyl lead for high-compression gasoline has already given at least a temporary solution to the detonation problem." (Author then describes efforts to produce a modified gasoline which will resist detonation without "doping". California crude is first step along these lines.) "The average anti-knock quality of the commercial, (un-doped) gasoline on the Atlantic seaboard, in July 1927 was at least "10% benzene" better than in July 1926." "The aim of present investigations is to produce a fuel---- to enable manufacturers to carry their compression ratios to --6:1, but which will permit the badly knocking straight-run gasoline which will also be produced to be blended with it and still give the desired result." "----the criteria of quality are rapidly becoming volatility and anti-knock value." (Continued) | ||