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).
Assessment of a car radio for Mr. Sclater-Booth's car, outlining the reasons for its unsuitability and discussing alternatives.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 63\2\ scan0185 | |
| Date | 9th January 1936 | |
| PER BAG. r6183. Cx.{Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager} From Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst. c. to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst.1/MA.9.1.36. Re. Car Radio on Mr.Sclater-Booth's Car. I have carefully perused the correspondence regarding the above which you left with me. The Wireless set on Mr.Booth's car is not new to us as we have already tried this set some time ago and we do not consider it to be the best sample of car radio for the following reasons:- (a) The size and weight of the set is exceptional and very difficult to accommodate on R.R. cars. We consider the bulk of this set excessive in view of the output. (b) The controls leave much to be desired and on all the installations we have tried one of which was Mr.Geoffrey Smith's, there is a considerable amount of backlash making the tuning very unselective. (c) The use of filters in the feed wires makes the set bulky and we find that these external filters are not really necessary if the set is properly installed and the right aerial system used, i.e. Dipolar. (d) We object to them connecting the set direct to the battery because it interferes with the principle we have adopted on all our electrical systems of connecting all accessories at least through the main emergency fuse. In connection with this we have been in correspondence with Messrs.Philips and they have produced a feed wire for their set with a fuse incorporated. This has been tested recently with not very satisfactory results and we are in communication with Messrs.Philips regarding this question at present. We consider therefore that until these people produce satisfactory fusing arrangements on their set we must insist that they couple up to our distribution board through our main emergency fuse. | ||