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).
Letter detailing proposals for supplying ignition and lighting systems, including service arrangements and testing protocols.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 49\5\ Scan069 | |
| Date | 10th December 1920 | |
| -2- I also explained to your engineers that we would be willing to sell to Rolls-Royce instruments which would all of them be exact duplicates of the samples which your engineers are taking back with them to England, and will further guarantee the instruments for the same period as the Rolls-Royce Company regularly guarantee their car. There is another matter that I called to their attention and that is the matter of service. Through the entire worl, there is not another electrical ignition apparatus manufacturer who has one-tenth of the service facilities that we have. We have in the U.S. upwards of 350 Service Stations and in the rest of the world approximately 125. We intend either to organize the International Western Electric Company for adequate service through-out England and France at once or institute our own branches in London and Paris to take care of the service needs of the two countries. In the matter of starting and lighting, I told your engineers that I would be very pleased to arrange to build starting and lighting apparatus of the design, provided they could be adopted on your cars, with a finish and workmanship equal to that of your present instruments, and we would be pleased to guarantee these the same as we will our ignition, namely, in line with whatever guarantee the Rolls-Royce may see fit to give on the complete vehicle. I am going to bring over on Saturday morning of this week, 6-cylinder automatic advance battery ignition set complete with coil, which I shall be glad to have your engineers take back to England with them. This automatic advance is, of course, not set to the characteristics of the Rolls-Royce engine. Our automatic advance is, however, so designed that we can adopt it to the ignition characteristics of any motor giving a timing range of 60°. If you will have the English Company give us the ignition curve of their motor, or better still, if you will allow us to have one of your American motors for two or three days for test on our dynamometer here, <strikethrough>we-will-be-only-too pleased-to-supply-to-Derby-ourselves,-we-will-b</strikethrough> so that we can ascertain the ignition curve definitely ourselves, we will only be too pleased to supply Derby additional sample battery ignition sets with automatic advance fitted to the particular curve of their motor, so they can run whatever tests they desire in regard to this particular branch of ignition. The sample that I will give you on Saturday will, of course, not be applicable to the Rolls-Royce car, unless in a 100 to 1 shot it might just fit the Rolls-Royce ignition curve. They can, however, use it for any type of bench tests they want to make, and it will give them a very good idea of the calibre of workmanship and the thought in the way of design that has been put into this instrument. Contd. | ||