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 explaining the function of a rectifier and a spark gap in an electrical circuit.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 61\1\ scan0179 | |
| Date | 11th March 1931 | |
| Mr. Symons, Messrs. H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} D.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} Symons & Co.Ltd. Kingston Hill, Surrey. 11th March, 1931. -2- Referring now to blue print diagram (1), when the switch shown thereon is closed the primary of the trembler coil is energised by the battery with the result that intermittent pulses of high positive pressure are produced at the H.T + terminal of the coil and on the H.T. main leading therefrom. The rectifier, by which means a portion of each positive pulse is collected and stored in the H.T. condenser, consists either of an H.T. valve rectifying unit or a spark gap rectifier shown on the diagram. The H.T. valve rectifying unit is made up in an insulating box complete with insulated battery and four terminals as shown, a link from B- to F- completing the filament circuit when the rectifier is to be used. This is a true rectifying unit in the sense that whenever the pressure on the plate of the valve exceeds the D.C. pressure of the filament in relation to datum, positive electricity will be fed through from plate to filament to increase or sustain the steady D.C. pressure of the H.T. D.C. main. In the case of the spark gap rectifier, which is an alternative apparatus for performing the rectifying function, it should be stated that the spark gap is not strictly speaking a rectifier in itself but that its rectifying action depends upon the fact that the impulses from the trembler coil are positive only as a result of the polarity of the battery itself. | ||