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 from an accumulator manufacturer discussing ignition system performance, maintenance, and potential improvements.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 61b\1\ scan0080 | |
| Date | 10th May 1930 | |
| X2894 Works, Dagenham Dock, Essex TELEPHONE VICTORIA 3667. 5 LINES PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE. TELEGRAMS CONCENTRATION, SOWEST, LONDON. Manufacturers of P & R Accumulators. Established 1889. PETO & RADFORD Proprietors - Pritchett & Gold and E.P.S. Company Ltd. 50 GROSVENOR GARDENS, LONDON, S.W.1. DIRECTORS: SIR ARCHIBALD C. GOLD F.C. GRAHAM MENZIES C.R.N. MINCHIN WILLIAM PETO C.R.D. PRITCHETT T.W. PRITCHETT YOUR REF OUR REF M/5. 10th May 1930. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Fowler Clark, Esq., Messrs. Rolls Royce Ltd., DERBY. Dear Fowler Clark, Thank you for yours of the 9th inst. which I have read with interest, together with your report of the 3rd March. I wish my points would run at least 10,000 miles, and 5,000 miles without touching. Honestly, they will not do 500 miles, and 100 is nearer the mark without low speed misfiring. I think there must be some factor at work out side the influence of this ignition set, making them so tricky. Your recommendation about instructions in the Instruction Book, touching them up and the care in re-bedding them, should not, I think, be really necessary. People ought not to have to mess about with these things. One buys an American car with Delco ignition, any make of car, and probably the owner does not have to touch the points the whole time he owns the car, and any cheap American car will run without having to have them attended to. Have you ever tried putting a Delco set on to see how that behaves? I think that all the attention necessary on this battery ignition makes it a case for connecting up the magneto (the weight and expense of which you are uselessly carrying at present) to another set of plugs and thus abolish misfiring as it is abolished in the larger car. Yours sincerely, GRMinchin | ||