The Solex Circular Radiator.
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Early in December, 1910, we published advance particulars of the Solex special ferm of radiator, but, in spite of the successful appeal which this speciality has made to Continental chassis builders, there has been little progress with regard to its introduction into this country until quite recently.
S. Wolf and Co., Ltd., 115, Southwark Street, SE., is the sole agent for Great Britain for this unit, and, ar a matter of fact, is now delivering a considerable batch of them to Thomas Tilling, Ltd., 1.0 be fitted to the Tilling-Stevens motorbuse: , which that company operates.
We have before us, at the time of writing, copies of certain dat a acquired during a number of recent extensive tests. These comprise the running of five selected chassis fitted with the new radiator on full days' work, with a mileage ranging for the day of from 94 to 142, the atmospheric temperature varying from 37 degrees Fahr. to 54 degrees Fabv. We find that the average temperature taken in the radiator never exceeded 180 degrees Fabr. at any one time, The days' records as a rule, show temperatures vary ing between 195 and 150.
Amongst the users of Solex radiators on the Continent it is in
teresting to note that the Paris General Omnibus Co. has 1200 of them, and that French makers who are fitting them as standard in elude Schneiders, De Dion-Bouton, Avant-Train Latil, Vinot Deguingn_ard, Malicet and Blin, and Brasier. In addition, the French War Office, the French Admiralty, and the Service des Automobiles Postale employ these coolers.
It is probably unnecessary for us to do more than remind our readers of the general form of construction which has proved so successful in the case of the Solex. Realizing that in the majority of cases the employment of the ordinary helical form of fan yields inefficient results, and that much of the air which is churned up behind the radiator never gets near to the cooling surfaces of the tubes, the designers of the Solex adopted the centrifugal, flat-bladed fan, and located this in the middle of a circular nest (,f small copper tubes, the latter culminating in top and bottom headers in the shape of keystones.
The Solex form of construction strikes one as being an eminently sensible relative application of the fan and the cooler. We have heard exception taken to the shape of the device on the score that it is difficult to bring it into line with the contours of many of the standard bonnets, but Mr. C. Krailsheirner, of the concessionna,ires, tells us that his company makes a speciality of onoting for these radiators fitted with special cases to suit almost any outline of bonnet.