LUBRICATION.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3079, 12 April 1927, Page 2

LUBRICATION.

Addressing a gathering of prominent automobile engineers and maintenance experts under the auspices of the Northern Galifornian Chapter of the Society of Automobile Engineers, Lieutenant Noville, second in command of the Byrd Polar expedition, advanced the statement that one of the big problems of the motor industry was the fact that the public generally is not familiar with the fact that the failure of oil to properly lubricate engines was not due to the oil "breaking down," but was caused by foreign contamination, such as dirt, carbon, gasoline dilution and water condensation. Lieutenant Noville considers that a second problem is the premature wear of engines caused by the use of "heavy " oil when "medium '' is specified by the car manufacturr ers and the refiner.

In connexion with the contamination of oil, Lieutenant Noville pointed out that one of the functions of oil is to change friction from a condition of metallic friction to internal friction wholly within the oil. While this ,woultl be an ideal condition he conceded that no such thing is possible under normal operating conditions but that good oil can reduce metallic friction to neeli-

gible proportions. Mr _French, an engineer of the Eichfield Oil Company, gave a talk on the properties and characteristics of oil and dwelt on the fact that too many motorists were using heavy oil in the belief that it lasted longer.