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).
Test summary and comparison of a Lucas battery ignition distributor and coil against a standard company unit.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\W\September1931-November1931\ Scan094 | |
| Date | 23th November 1931 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst. c. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} c. WGR. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} RV. ORIGINAL Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst.1/AD23.11.31. X6018 LUCAS BATTERY IGNITION. We have recently had submitted to us for test by Dr. E.O. Turner of the Lucas Research Laboratories a Lucas ignition distributor type M-O and Lucas ignition coil type L. and we give below a summary of the test results and other particulars obtained. Distributor. Condenser of circular construction, capacity = .19 mf. Our std. condenser has a capacity of .23 mf. Load on contact breaker points = 1 lb. 1 1/4 ozs. approx. the same as our own. Weight of contact lever complete with spring and connector = .25 oz. as compared with ours .50 oz. Leakage distance from H.T. parts to earth in distributor head = .875" as compared with approx. .400" on our distributor. Total weight of distributor = 2 lbs. 8 ozs. Contact breaker make ratio = .76 Normal contact gap setting = .018" Special features noted were that :- (a) The contact lever spring is a coil spring instead of a flat spring. (b) The distributor segments were made of brass and fairly heavy in construction, the H.T. rotor blade being of nickel. The distributor has been run over 800 hours on the bench firstly with our own coil and ballast and secondly with the Lucas coil supplied. No difference was noted as regards the condition of the contact points after either test. The contacts do not wear as much as ours, but the surface conditions, which govern misfiring at idling speeds, were worse due to pitting. We think the better wearing of the points is due to the fact that there is probably a quicker break. The distributor segments and H.T. rotor blade showed very little signs of wear and were in considerably better condition than our own after a similar period of running. This we attribute to the combination of materials used, brass and nickel and also to the fact that the generous dimensions | ||