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).
Reliability of vacuum and pressure fuel feed systems for automobiles.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\J\May1923\ Scan37 | |
| Date | 9th May 1923 guessed | |
| contd:- -2- We understand the Hudson people have recently started to fit to their cars a hand-operated suction pump for exhausting the vacuum tank in case of emergency. Another system being used in U.S.A. is the Kingston Oil Vac worked from the depression caused by the suction side of the oil pump. There is a prejudice, which is quickly dying out, against the vacuum feed which was brought about by the unreliability of some of the early vacuum tanks. Taking all points into account, we recommend the use of the Autovac system. We think that we ought to look upon such conditions as those at Denver City as exceptions and be prepared to make special arrangements to suit them. We should not expect our pressure system to be reliable under high altitude conditions considering we are using a pump with no relief valve. The alternative to the vacuum is to make the pressure system more reliable and so that it will hold pressure for a week or more, and then, instead of releasing the pressure, the petrol should be turned off when the car is not in use so that it would not be necessary to be continually pumping up the pressure by hand. We can considerably improve our system for holding the pressure by cancelling the 4-way tap on the side of the frame and making an excellent job of the valve in the air pump and hand pump. We are carrying on with the tests for the standardisation of the Autovac. We wish, however, for it to be realised that the system has limitations. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||