Friction Fighters (1940)

The scientific world of today is the scene of a stirring drama. The drama of man's endless search not for new oceans to cross or new lands to conquer, but for discoveries that will make our world of today and tomorrow a better place in which to live. Not the sword or the gun, but the test tube is the modern symbol of conquest and victory. In ancient days, men sailed the seas for silk from the Orient. Today, through chemical research, beautiful, lustrous fabric stronger than silk are made from wood, or glass, or even crude black coal. Once upon a time, cotton was used only for spinning yarn. Today, through the magic of the test tube, we find it made into shimmering cellophane, into strong, solid, durable materials of every form and color. Nothing new under the sun? Oh, yes, there is. Take that bracelet of yours, for example. You may not know it, but that bracelet is partly made from milk. The same milk that you drink every day. Research chemists discovered that casein from milk can be used in making plastic material from which all sorts of beautiful and useful things can be made. And that's just one of hundreds of new discoveries. I guess a lot of new things have been discovered in your business. You bet. Petroleum research gets more important all the time. Isn't petroleum just oil? Just oil? Yes. But oil is one of the most important raw materials in the world. I guess you don't know, for instance, that petroleum goes into the cosmetics you use, cream, your lipstick, even your fingernail polish. I wish you could come out and visit the laboratories where I work. It's almost like getting a glimpse into the future. Out there, you'd see hundreds of men at work year in and year out discovering countless new uses for oil. These laboratories lead the world in the study of petroleum. Crude oil is broken down, taken apart, and put together again in strange new forms. It's used to make alcohol, for instance, insecticides, medical products, paints, even synthetic substitutes for rubber. And one of the biggest research problems of all is creating oils and greases to lubricate every kind of machine that moves. It sounds thrilling. What did you discover? Yes, what's your job? My job? Well, I guess you could call me a friction fighter. A friction fighter? Yes. You've heard of friction. Friction is everywhere. Out there on the street, friction gives our shoes a grip on the sidewalk, keeps us from slipping. That friction is good. But friction also wears down the soles of our shoes. That's bad. It costs us money. Look around this restaurant. You can see dozens of examples. Every time two surfaces rub against each other, friction takes place between them. Friction and wear. Look there. Friction wears the point of a pencil. Without friction to wear down the point, the pencil wouldn't write. Look over there. When you strike a match, the rubbing of the match on the box causes friction, which produces heat and lights the match. This friction is good. It's useful. Look over there. The friction between the violinist's bow and the strings of the instrument is what produces the sound of a violin. Without friction, we'd have no music. The chef in the kitchen uses friction to sharpen his knife. The friction of steel against steel, gradually wearing the knife away in order to keep it sharp. But in machinery, that same friction of steel against steel is destructive if we don't prevent it. The finest machine ever built can be worn out and ruined in no time. Strangely enough, the automobile engine, which rarely gives you any trouble nowadays, is one of the hardest lubrication problems we have. And every year it gets harder. Why? What's so hard about it? Because every year automobiles change. Do you remember the old gas buggies of 25 years ago? Well, I wouldn't admit it if I could. Well, I remember the car my dad bought in 1914. It was advertised as the last word in mechanical perfection. It was then. But friction played havoc with those early cars. A long journey without mechanical trouble was almost a miracle. Today, automobile makers really have something to advertise. Cars today are bigger, safer, more comfortable, and many times faster and more powerful than the cars of yesterday. But look at the difference in the engines that run these cars. Today, with three times the power they used to have, engines are smaller and lighter. And lubricating them has become just that much tougher. They run under higher compression, which means more power in less space. It also means a hotter running engine. And the parts being fitted much closer together leave less room for a lubricating film. Here's a drawing of an automobile engine. It'll give you an idea of all the places we have to lubricate in order to prevent friction. Oh, that looks too complicated. Let's don't get technical. Oh, it's not so complicated. Look. The bottom part of the engine is just a pan or crankcase to hold the oil. In it, there's a pump to pump the oil up to the moving parts of the engine. Here, just above, is what we call the crankshaft. This crankshaft is supported by the main engine bearings here. Fastened to the crankshaft are connecting rods and pistons. These pistons fit very snugly into the cylinders of the engine. The little space above the piston in each cylinder is called the combustion chamber. And that's where the gasoline burns. The burning fuel mixture of gasoline and air pushes the pistons down, and that turns the crankshaft and makes the wheels go round. See? That isn't so complicated, is it? Why, no, not when you explain it that way. But wait a minute. We haven't put any oil in our engine yet, and that's what we're talking about. The oil is stored down here in the crankcase. Before the engine starts, the oil is cold, anywhere from average temperature in summer down to zero or even below in winter. When the engine starts, the oil has to reach every moving part, and reach it almost instantly in order to provide a lubricating film that prevents friction and excessive wear. First, it's pumped up to all the bearings, the main bearings and the connecting rod bearings. It spreads out over each bearing in a film thinner than tissue paper. From the ends of the bearings, oil is thrown up onto the cylinder walls, where it works up and spreads into a fine film on the pistons and cylinder walls, covering every moving part. These moving surfaces may look to the eye as smooth as this polished silk. But if we look at them under the microscope, we find that the tiny points of metal form little hills and valleys on the surface. As long as there is a clean, tough film of good oil between these parts, they never actually touch. Friction and wear can't possibly take place. In order to form this protective film, oil must flow freely and easily. Yet it must maintain sufficient body to keep from being squeezed out from between the metal surfaces. Otherwise, they come together, and we again have friction and wear. And oil must keep both its flow and its body at every temperature, from the coldest start to the heat of high speed on the road. And that brings up one of the most important things about oil. What happens to the flow of oil when it gets cold or hot? The answer is it behaves very much like good old-fashioned molasses. You know that if you keep molasses in a refrigerator, it thickens up. And the colder it gets, the thicker it gets. When you try to pour it, it flows out in a slow, sluggish stream. But if you take that same molasses and keep it on the stove instead of in the refrigerator, its action is just the opposite. It flows through the air with the greatest of ease. If you want to try the same experiment with motor oil, take one can and chill it in the refrigerator, and another can of the same oil and heat it on the stove. Then pour the cold oil and the hot oil at the same time, with the same size hole punched in each can, the difference in flow is obvious. The chilled oil is thick and sluggish as cold molasses. The same oil heated is thin and free-flowing, just like hot molasses. This flow of oil is so important that in the laboratory we study and measure the flow characteristics of every brand of oil sold to the public. In comparing oils, we'll cover their brand names with test numbers. We aren't interested in names, only in showing how widely different oils vary in quality and performance. Here, for instance, oils are kept at various low temperatures at which they might be called upon to work in starting a car. Let's pick out a half dozen of these oils cooled down to 25° and see at this temperature how their flow compares. These oils are all rated as medium consistency or body, SAE number 30, the grade most widely used throughout the year. To pour the oils from these cans, we'll make the same size hole in each. After punching the same size hole in each can, they are all put together in a rack from which they may be poured together at the same time. The six we have selected here represent the range of oils which most motorists use as they are six of the most widely sold brands of motor oil on the market. It doesn't take a chemist to tell us that at this moderately cold starting temperature of 25°, there's not only a difference, but a big difference between these well-known brands. These two, for instance, are quite fluid. They flow easily at this temperature. These two are thicker. The low temperature makes them flow more slowly. These two are extremely thick and sluggish. Their fluidity has been almost destroyed by being cooled down to 25°. Now, let's take the oil which thickened the most and the oil which thickened the least and see what this difference in flow means in actual lubricating ability. Here's an instrument that indicates the actual difference in drag between moving surfaces caused by a difference in the flow of oil. Inside the oil cup on the instrument are polished steel discs which revolve against each other when the motor is started. The instrument has two dials. One to show the relative amount of power required to turn the discs in the oil, the other to show the speed at which the discs are turning. First, we'll pour in the oil which remained free flowing at 25°. Notice that the cup is refrigerated to keep the oil cold. Watch what happens as the motor is started. The steel discs are now revolving against each other just as the moving parts in the engine of your car move against each other when you step on the starter. Notice the power required to move the steel discs lubricated with this oil that flows freely when cold. This point is marked. Notice also the speed at which the discs are turning. This point we'll also mark. Now, while the machine is still running, we'll take out the oil which flows easily and put in the oil which flows thicker and more sluggishly at the same temperature. Watch what happens. As soon as the thicker oil reaches the lubricated surfaces, the power needed to keep them moving becomes very much greater, even though some of the thinner oil remains in the cup. At the same time, the added drag between the moving parts caused by the oil which flows sluggishly, cuts down the speed of the motor enormously, as you can see. Imagine the drag on the small surfaces of this instrument multiplied by every moving part in an automobile engine, the cylinder walls and pistons, the main bearings and all the rest of the bearings in the engine. Let's see what that means. Here is a car in one of our test rooms which has been cooled down and kept for 12 hours at 25°. In the crankcase is the same sluggish oil that we've just seen tested. Instruments connected to the car give observers outside the cold room accurate information on everything that happens. With the ignition of the car turned on, the starter is pressed. The starter is using all the energy of the battery, yet the engine drag of the sluggish oil makes the engine turn over so slowly that it cannot possibly start. Now, let's try the oil which we found flowed so much more freely at the same temperature, 25°. The first oil is cleaned out and the second put in and the car is allowed to stand overnight at 25° temperature. All right. Let's try the other oil. With ignition switch off, the starter is pressed. The motor spins easily because the oil which flows freely at this temperature causes no excessive drag between the moving parts of the engine. The moment we turn on the ignition, the motor responds. In this test, all conditions have been the same. Same car, same battery, same temperature. Nothing changed but the oil. Yet most motorists believe that oil has nothing to do with starting. I always thought it was just the battery. Or the gasoline. Millions of motorists don't realize that oil causes the trouble when it's too thick. And on the other hand, even fewer drivers realize what happens when it's too thin. Up here on the pistons and rings, when the engine is hot, motor oil really gets the works. Did you ever see one of these pistons from an automobile engine? Well, no, I don't think so. Well, just try and imagine one. A piston from an average automobile engine is about the size and shape of this vase. And it has rings just about where you see these ridges. Now, imagine that that isn't made of clay, it's made of a tough light steel alloy. Can you imagine that? So, I'll try. Good. This piston fits into the cylinder so tightly that the rings pressing out against the cylinder wall are separated from it by a film of oil as thin as that chiffon handkerchief. When you're driving at average speed on the highway, gasoline is fired on top of this piston over 1,200 times a minute, 10 times as fast as a machine gun can fire. The top of the piston heats up to 600° or even hotter. Down here on the skirt of the piston, the heat can run up well over 300°. The top rings may run 4 or 500°. And any woman who's had experience cooking with an oven knows that these temperatures are plenty hot. You know what the heat of a roasting oven does to fat and grease and cooking oil. It forms varnish-like deposits on the roasting pan and around the oven, deposits that bake almost too hard to be cleaned off. And when motor oil in your engine cooks at these same temperatures, chemical changes take place that deposit the same kind of varnish-like residues. We do exactly the same experiment in the laboratory, except that we do it under strictly scientific control so that we can tell the exact amount that each different brand of oil deposits. We measure out the same quantity of each different oil for every test. Each sample is cooked in the stove under precisely controlled temperature for several hours. Samples of each oil are cooked at several different temperatures. Notice that some oils leave behind far more varnish than others. Exactly the same thing happens when oil breaks down at these temperatures in an engine. In our engine test laboratories, we run all kinds of engines day and night, year in and year out to study how different oils behave in actual use. The wear on every part of each engine is accurately measured and its exact condition noted. Some oils break down faster than others and leave behind more varnish. Here is varnish deposited by one of the best known and most widely advertised oils on the market during a test run of only 10 hours. On this piston, using another oil, we find hardly any varnish at all after the same length of run in the same engine. This shows the difference in varnish formation between different oils in actual use. Here's a piston so completely stuck with varnish that it couldn't even be lifted out of the engine. We had to pound it out with a hammer. This is the result of a 20-hour high-speed run on an oil that is known and used by motorists from coast to coast. The results in actual use are the same as we find in laboratory tests. But this heat on the piston and rings does something even more serious than form varnish. It makes the oil thin out, sometimes almost as thin as water. An oil that's too thin not only fails to prevent friction, but it leaks past the piston rings, escapes into the combustion chamber, and is burned up. This extra consumption of oil is very costly. Every motorist knows that some oils are used up faster than others. Now, you know the reason. They thin out too much to retain a protective body, leak past the rings, and are burned up and wasted. Well, how hot does oil have to get before it breaks down? Every oil is different. Some stand up under much greater heat than others. Part of our business is finding out just how much heat an oil can stand before it reaches its hot danger point. There's no guesswork about these things. Every oil is carefully checked on carbon, flash point, color, oxidation. Each characteristic is scrutinized with utmost care. But motor oil, above everything else, must flow in order to lubricate. And because flow is so important, we use the most modern, most accurate instruments in the world to study the flow of oil. The point at which oil gets thick enough to prevent starting, we'll call it cold danger point. The point of extreme thinness when the oil is almost water thin and no longer gives the needed protection against friction and high consumption, we'll call it hot danger point. We can show you clearly the wide difference between the hot and cold danger points of various oils by comparing them on a simple chart. We'll set up on the chart the medium grade SAE number 30 oils, which we found flowed so differently at low temperatures. And we'll see just where these oils actually fall down, both when cold and hot. The lower part of these temperature charts represents the low temperature danger zone in an engine. Starting temperatures from 20° below zero to 40° above zero. The upper part represents the hot danger zone in the engine. The running temperatures from 300° up to 500°. As the chart is operated, let's watch the cold performance of the first two oils. The first oil reaches its cold danger point, the point at which it gets too thick to work, when it is cooled to 12°. Obviously, with this oil, you could easily start your car at a temperature of 25° or lower. While with this one, you could start only with the greatest difficulty at at all, because it gets too thick to work at 24°. Now, let's see what happens when these same oils get hot. The oil which failed at 12° when cold will give cylinder wall protection until it reaches 385°. But the oil which failed at 24° when cold failed at 366° when hot. Obviously, the first oil is better than the second. It will give protection against friction and wear, longer mileage, and better lubrication at both lower and higher operating temperatures. How about the rest of them? As the charts show us their danger points, we can see at a glance that they're all different. Remember that all these oils are widely sold, highly advertised brands, each used by countless thousands of motorists. The difference you see here shows the actual difference in protection which motorists buy when they buy these oils. Here's one, for instance, which will start your car down to 9°. Here's another which flows freely enough to start at zero. They are both far better for cold starting than the first two. What happens when these oils get hot? The one which will start at 9° above zero doesn't break down from heat until it reaches 406°. 40° more protection than the oil which failed at 366°. But the oil which flowed down to zero is even better. It holds its body and stands up under heat all the way up to 440°. Looking at these oils together, we see the complete safe operating range of all of them. We can tell at a glance which saves the motorist money and gives him longest oil mileage. This one has by far the greatest range of protection. Is that perfectly clear? Not entirely. Why? Because up in New England, where I come from, none of those oils you've been telling us about will work. We have temperatures way below zero lots of the time, and yet we usually get started. >> Oh, well, that's because you use a winter grade oil. Remember, we've been talking about medium grade oil. All these brands are made in light winter grades, too. Let's take a look at them. Here's our chart set up for the winter grades of the same brands of oil we looked at before. These winter oils are especially designed for cold weather. And as you see, will all permit starting an engine, if necessary, at temperatures well below zero. But when your engine is running, the piston rings get almost as hot in winter as they do in summer, because the heat comes from burning gasoline and not from the temperature of the outside air. So, let's see what happens to these winter grade oils when they get hot. As the thermometers move up, we can see how much lower their hot danger points are than those we saw before. This one gets into trouble not at 366°, the hot danger point of its summer grade, but at 270°. So, what you gain on cold starting, you far more than lose in protection and mileage when the engine is hot. Look at them all. Their hot protection falls off so far that although some of them are still much better than others, none of them has the safe operating range that the engine temperatures require. In other words, although these winter grades will start your car easily, they all give high consumption and poor protection. But to get back to our medium grade SAE 30 oil, right here is the answer to the question, what must an oil have to give longer mileage and greater protection against wear? It must flow more freely at lower temperatures, yet keep its lubricating body at higher temperatures than any of these oils. And the best of these six brands here represents the finest ever made until our research resulted in new discoveries which changed this whole picture. In fact, years ago, our research chemists realized that improvement in motor oil was not keeping up with advances in automobile engine design. We could see then that for real protection against friction and wear, an oil with a far wider safe operation range was needed. As research chemists, the problem of discovering how to make such an oil was up to us. And long, patient research did the trick. And we did it in much the same way that metallurgists have developed the new metal alloys that are so widely used today. Years ago, steel was just steel. Today, there are many kinds of steels. For example, tungsten gives steel high resistance to wear. I put in manganese and the steel becomes ductile or pliable. Chrome steels resist corrosion, and so on. What we did in our research was to discover special parts of crude oil never before used in making motor oil, which gave us the new properties we were seeking. The story of that search is a long The basic oil for this new lubricant was made from the best selected crudes, carefully refined to eliminate carbon and other impurities which cause dirty and repair bills. Then we added our new discovery. One made our final oil stand up in the hottest part of the engine, preventing breakdown into harmful gummy varnish, which in other oils causes serious trouble for pistons, rings, and valves. Another new fraction was added to enable the oil to carry higher loads and pressures without friction and wear. Still another new part of the crude gave our oil higher resistance to the thinning effects and the thickening effects of cold, making an oil nearer than ever to the ideal oil for all temperatures. A brand new high in long oil mileage and low consumption. When this new motor oil was finally completed, we compared its cold danger point and its hot danger point with those of the most widely sold oils in the market. What did we find? Watch it. On the cold end, down, down, down 8° below zero. That meant our new oil, the medium grade, would start in 8° below zero weather. But far more important, it meant that at all ordinary starting temperatures, this oil would give quicker, easier pumping, faster flowing lubrication, and more protection against starting friction. We studied its hot danger point. 350°. 400, 425, 450, 472°. 32° more protection than the best of all other oils produced by any previous method of refining. We made it in a winter grade. The comparison was even more stark. This winter grade, which was made to be free flowing and easy starting at 24° below zero, reached a new high in hot engine performance for a winter oil. It gave 42° more heat protection than the next best oil. Quickly, it was turned over to our engine test laboratories to be checked in actual use. In dozens of engines, day and night, week in and week out, this new oil was given the most severe grueling tests that engineers could devise. Engines were torn down and measured, rebuilt, rerun, and torn down again. Consumption noted, varnish deposits measured. And then the most vital test of all, out on of the road this new oil went in cars of every type, testing for months after month, for thousands upon thousands of miles, exactly as it would be used in the cars of millions of motorists. What was the result? Thousands of dollar sheets told the same story over and over again. A new oil had really been created. An oil that would give motorists protection beyond anything ever known before. The highest known resistance to both heat and cold, which means longer life, motors protected against friction and harmful varnish, and best of all, longer oil mileage. This new oil is just another example of the results of modern research. The kind of research that is revolutionizing old methods in every industry. And because the kind of research that created it never stops, we know that this oil will always give unexcelled performance in the cars of tomorrow.