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References are made to published results of similar tests of air-cleaner devices conducted in 1922, and the scope of the 1924 tests is described. Road tests of air-cleaners were carried out and the tabulated data are presented. Efforts were made to find out how much dust the engine would draw in if the cleaner and connections were removed and to catch and weigh the dust the air-cleaner under test failed to catch. Dust was raised by a car running about 50 ft. ahead of the test-car and, to produce heavy dust-conditions, the road was dragged with a chain attached to the car and forming a loop behind it. The leading drivers maintained as nearly as possible a constant speed of 25 m.p.h. and chose the dustiest part of the road, following the same course on all the rounds.

Tests to determine the location under the hood of a motor vehicle where the air-intake of the carbureter will be exposed to the least dust were made by the agricultural engineering division of the University of California at Davis, Cal., and the results are given in the hope that they will serve a useful purpose. Of three types of dust-screen devised to catch the dust at different locations so that it could be photographed, and still would present little hindrance to passage of the air from point to point under the hood, the most effective was one of coarse hospital gauze stretched over frames set in transverse vertical positions on either side of and above the engine. The tests were made on two phaetons and a speed truck, run for less than 3 miles and following another car on a dusty road.

Utilizing an opportunity presented by a mountain-road construction-project in California, eight Class-B 3½-ton trucks were assigned to the work and a test of air-cleaners was conducted during its progress. Six trucks were each equipped with an air-cleaner; two were not. The trucks had dump-bodies and were specially prepared for the test, details of this preparation being specified. Due to varied air-cleaner design, it was not feasible to locate the cleaners identically on all the trucks, and differences in mounting may have influenced the resulting air-cleaner efficiency, but mountings were made as nearly identical as possible. Tables of average wear of piston-rings, engine cylinders and crankpins, for 1000 hr. of use, are presented, and details of how the measurements were made are stated, together with a discussion of the “growth” of pistons and of the peculiarities of wear.

Rapid wearing out of the engines of farm tractors, trucks and automobiles led the University of California to undertake a study of the dust problem and the efficiency of air-cleaners in removing field and road dust from the air before it passes into the engine. Work was begun in 1922 and several reports have been made on the methods devised and the progress made during the last 2 years. Results to June, 1924, were given in the paper published in August, 1924. The present paper gives results of the studies to the end of 1924 and includes data from tests of 12 new makes or models of air-cleaner not previously tested or not fully tested. Of outstanding importance is the discovery that the quantity of dust inspired by any cleaner or carbureter is greatly reduced if the intake is placed high and faces away from the direction of motion of the vehicle.