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).
Issues with electric lighting systems, focusing on the dynamo, battery, and control rather than the lamps themselves.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 61a\1\ scan0014 | |
| Date | 23th October 1914 | |
| COPY. To Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} for Hy.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} from R.{Sir Henry Royce} 28/10/14 Copy to J.{Mr Johnson W.M.} R7/IB231014. Oct. 23rd. 1914. Wor{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager}/Hy{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer}31/LL91014. With reference to the electric lighting systems, your test of the various lamps shows evidently a vast superiority of the electric over the acetylene lamp. I would much rather that you had tested the various lamps on the road. My impression is that the trouble with the lighting systems is not with the lamps or bulbs, and attention should be more concentrated on the small details of the wiring system as a point, but principally upon the dynamo, battery, and control. On the road, I have had one very bad failure of the Edison cells, but these I understand, have now been abandoned. I remember the explanation, but I think as it has never taken place with reference to lead cells, that it showed the Edison battery really to be the least reliable of all. The difficulty with the ordinary lead cells is that they should be kept thoroughly well charged, and to do this it seems necessary that the dynamo should automatically cut in and cut out at a slow speed, and that the dynamo drive should be a satisfactory one. This latter has been a trouble on most of the cars with which I have had experience, and I believe it is caused principally by making the dynamo too small and too high speeded. It is highly desirable that the pulley sizes should be kept large, so that the centrifugal force of the belt passing X/357 | ||