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 to The Lucas Electrical Co. discussing the reasons for the continued manufacture of battery ignition systems.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 37\1\ scan 153 | |
| Date | 26th June 1927 | |
| X3199 EFC2/T. 26th June, 1927. Dr. Turner, Messrs. The Lucas Electrical Co., Well Street, Birmingham. X3199 X4652 Dear Dr. Turner, The other day we had a conversation with a representative of Messrs. Reynolds, according to whom battery ignitions for cars have been manufactured by various British firms, and the manufacture of these has now almost entirely been given up in this country, ourselves being practically the only people who continue to make a battery ignition system. We understand that your firm is included in this category and we are very much interested to know the reason or reasons why the manufacture of battery ignition by yourselves and other firms should have been dropped. The old reason of the unsatisfactoriness of batteries can, at this stage, scarcely be considered to apply in view of the fact that one must have a battery to act as a controller of the electrical system which now-a-days may be said to be a necessary portion of the starter and lighting equipment of a car. So long as a battery is in good enough condition to act as a controller (even though it may be poor as a reservoir) the supply of current for battery ignition is assured. A second reason given by Messrs. Reynold's representative seemed to us to carry much more weight at the present date, viz. the possibility of the battery ignition being inadvertently left switched on and running down the battery, say overnight, and therefore putting the starter out of action in the morning. That always is a possibility, though with our own type of switchbox with the lever switches, this possibility we think may be considered to be reduced to an absolute minimum, as it is comparatively easy to acquire the habit of putting these switches in the right positions and of not again switching them round in the wrong positions for standing. Contd. | ||