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).
Head-lamp failure, comparing the standard fuse system with a proposed buzzer alternative.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 61\2\ scan0250 | |
| Date | 6th April 1927 guessed | |
| -2- Contd. Mr. Myers experience of head-lamp failure is unfortunate, but the conditions under which it occurred are probably not comparable with those obtaining on an R.R. car. It is better practice to arrange, as we have done, the lighting system so that wing-lamps cannot be off with head-lamps on - is it not legally necessary in this country ? Far better to take the small risk of head lamps failing at speed with side lamps still on and the smaller risk of serious resulting consequences, than to incur the risk of fire, which risk is practically the same with either system unprotected. It is difficult to see what advantage the buzzer alternative proposed by Mr. Myers would give over the fuse system. It is true that after each temporary contact of an intermittent short it will restore the circuit, but if the short is heavy enough and lasts long enough to blow the fuse, it would result in putting out the head lamps for an inconvenient period of time when travelling fast equally with the buzzer as with the fuse. Again, evidence of something intermittently wrong is more visible on the lighting than audible on a buzzer at high speed. Contd. | ||