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).
Article reprinted from a motor journal discussing the gyroscopic prevention of side-slip.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 77\5\ scan0170 | |
| Date | 29th April 1911 | |
| Reprinted from The AUTO MOTOR JOURNAL of April 29th and May 6th, 1911. AUTO TECHNOLOGY. Elementary Articles on any Technical Subject will be included in this Section at the Request of Readers. GYROSCOPIC PREVENTION OF SIDE-SLIP. EVERYBODY is to some extent familiar with the gyroscope, even if they cannot honestly claim to have any very clear conception of its actions and reactions, but very few people indeed would be prepared to anticipate its successful application to motor cars in such a manner as effectually to act as a preventative against side-slip. A very considerable amount of development work has nevertheless been carried out in this particular application of the gyroscope to motor vehicles, and already it has been proved to demonstration that a marked degree of success has been secured. We refer, of course, to the enterprise of Messrs. Gyroscopic Non-Skids, Ltd., in connection with the inventions of Mr. A.{Mr Adams} Rutt, and to the recent Press trial conducted by them at their works, 112, Grosvenor Road, S.W., with cars driven over specially-prepared slippery surfaces. Since the public trial in question we have taken up the subject in some detail with the Company that has been formed to fit these gyroscopic non-skids to existing cars, as well as to arrange for their incorporation in the future chassis designs of leading manufacturers, and we are therefore more or less in a position to explain just what has been achieved and what are the features of the “Rutt” gyroscopic apparatus. In advance it may be said that the parts employed differ very considerably from those of the ordinary gyroscope as it has been hitherto known, either to the public or in engineering circles; and it may at the same time be said that apparently this is the first occasion on which any gyroscope of any sort or kind whatever, or intended for any purpose at all, has found its way as an accessory to an automobile. Proved Performance. By way of clearing the ground the statement may unhesitatingly be made that this device does in effect serve the purpose for which it is designed, and that to some extent at any rate the claims of inventor and development syndicate have been proved to our entire satisfaction. It is at least a fact that whereas a car driven over the prepared greasy surface will slew right round and will be virtually out of control within a very few moments of the sudden application of the rear wheel brakes, yet the same performance repeated with the gyroscope running even at moderate speed can be conducted time after time without any perceptible deviation from a straight course. It is also only fair to emphasise the further obvious fact that the advantages secured by this gyroscopic type of non-skid are entirely independent of the nature of the road surface or of the particular kind of tyres that are employed, so that it therein at least is superior to those other kinds of non-skid that are already known in which an improved frictional contact as between car and road has been aimed at. By this we mean that steel studs, for instance, afford excellent non-skid properties on greasy surfaces having a solid foundation that can be reached by the studs, but that this self-same type of non-skid is worse than useless, in comparison even with a plain smooth all-rubber tread, on dry granite setts or on perfectly new wood pavement that is free from moisture. If the gyroscopic non-skid is effective at all it must be equally effective everywhere, at least up to the extent to which it tends to restrain sideway movements of the back of the car as a result of laterally applied forces. Extent of Requirements. While still dealing with these preliminary aspects of the subject it would be well at once to remove any misapprehension on a point that might otherwise easily be overlooked. It may in fact be thought presently that the actual amount of effort that can be exerted by the apparatus of which we are about to speak must essentially be quite trivial in relationship to that which is required in order to be able to prevent side-slip. It might be argued that if a vehicle is standing on quite a slippery road it would take a big effort on the part of anyone standing alongside to push the rear portion round, and so bring about what is equivalent when the car is in use to a side-slip. Quite likely the car when travelling at a very moderate pace over that same piece of road might swing right round if the brakes were suddenly applied, and hence it might be thought that as much force would be necessary to prevent the actual side-slip as would be needed in the case of the standing car to push it laterally in the neighbourhood of the back axle. That which would have been overlooked in any such line of thought as this is that when an actual side-slip occurs, the grip between the tyre and the road has already been lost, so that to all intents and purposes the wheel is spinning on the road or is slipping already; and consequently it takes but very little effort indeed to move the car across the road or in any other sideway direction. Experienced motorists well know that a tyre which secures a good driving grip is less likely to side-slip than one which has a less power of adhesion in the direction of rotation, even though it may not have any longitudinal ridges or their equivalent that would directly resist side-slip. It must therefore be borne in mind that for all ordinary side-slips brought about either by the application of the brakes or by the drive of the engine upon the tyres, a very little counteracting force may be needed provided that that force is available at the very instant PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF The AUTO MOTOR JOURNAL 44, ST.{Capt. P. R. Strong} MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. | ||