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).
Summary of a discussion on gearbox performance, gear changing, and silence.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\U\2January1930-September1930\ Scan012 | |
| Date | 15th January 1930 | |
| W. FROM DA{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/HDY.{William Hardy} C. to SG.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} WCR. G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} C. to PN.{Mr Northey} FWG. C. to HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} BM DA{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/HDY{William Hardy}1/H15.1.30. XSZ3. X7310 XS310. V2061 GEARBOX. CHANGING & SILENCE. I discussed the gearbox situation with C. CX.{Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager} and H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} on Friday the 10th inst., and with PN.{Mr Northey} and HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} on Monday, and give below a summary of the conversation:- CHANGING. The Sales opinion as expressed at the first conference was that there is no dissatisfaction with our present gear change at the moment. Our 20HP. change is very easy and the Phantom is better than other cars of the same size. CX.{Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager} cited Bentley as inferior to us in this respect. The percentage of Phantom cars entirely driven by a chauffeur is large and in these cases the chauffeur is blamed for noisy gear changes. PN.{Mr Northey} was in favour of the RR. scheme of freewheel in the lay-shaft as a temporary improvement. HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} said that the freewheel as it was now working (at first it was not properly free) would meet the requirements of some customers to whom changing is a real difficulty. The freewheel can be locked when it is desired to use the engine as a brake on a gear. The principal difference between the RR. scheme and most other applications of the freewheel is thatthe freewheel does not function when the car is in top gear, and the behaviour of the car is entirely orthodox in this gear. This should be borne in mind when considering the failure of the freewheel to become popular during the 2 years in which it has been available to the public on a number of cars. HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} said that he had driven an Armstrong-Siddeley with the easy change box and had found it to have definite advantages. The gear change was of course noiseless, and changes were made more quickly than they could be made on the ordinary box, and the acceleration when using more than one gear was appreciably increased. Shunting the car took less time. The so called easychange on Graham-Paige and Chrysler cars works without much shock that is apparent, but we know that it must be severe on the transmission. The general opinion was that first speed on Phantom was never required except when the car was starting from rest on a gradient, and so if necessary it could be less easy of access than the other forward speeds. (1) | ||