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).
Report on high-speed steering wobbles and gyroscopic forces.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 29\1\ Scan075 | |
| Date | 23th September 1925 | |
| S/W (Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}). 457 CWB20/LH{Mr Haworth}23.9.25. HIGH SPEED STEERING WOBBLES. ref. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}2/LG18.9.25. This exhaustive report is most interesting, and really does appear to give a satisfactory explanation of all the phenomena of the "wobble". The only point that I cannot quite understand is why the wheel, when wobbling, is turned inwards when it meets the ground. Is it that sometimes when the criss-cross motion of the axle is on, the wheel is parallel when it hits the ground - sometimes it is turned out and sometimes turned in? In other words, in the first instance, is it only chance which determines its position, but that only in the case where it is turned in, will the necessary conditions be established for a serious wobble to be set-up. It would appear that the gyroscopic forces acting upon the wheel when the front axle is rotated about a horizontal axis parallel to the length of the car, would tend to the wheel being turned outwards when it meets the ground. Could you let me know the reason why the wheel is turned inwards when it hits the ground? The more research one makes on this matter the more complicated it appears to be, but it really does seem as though you had now got somewhere near the bottom of it. CWB. [Signature] | ||