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).
Detailed report on the switch, battery, and dual battery ignition system.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\R\2December1927-February1928\ Scan062 | |
| Date | 1st December 1927 guessed | |
| -3- Contd. The switch, though very crude, does not appear to have undergone very much burning at the two contact surfaces which are mutually connected by a bridging button held in contact with them by the applied pressure which is effected by hand through a suitable lever giving a fairly large mechanical advantage. The machine has a moulded commutator. The brushes are very inaccessible. BATTERY. 6-volt "Prestolite". IGNITION. This is dual battery ignition by two coils and single 16-point distributor. There are two H.T. rotor pick-up carbon brushes each leading to a jump spark blade. One brush is carried in the centre of the distributor head and bears on the centre of the rotor which is in communication with the other blade. The other brush communicating with the other blade is carried eccentrically on the other rotor and bears on a brass ring in the head. The two blades are separated by 7/16 of a revolution. A single 8-point cam operates two contact breakers in synchronism (placed 180º apart) each working one coil. Thus the distributor is only a mechanical superposition of two independent, 8 cyl. distributors in a single unit, there being really no electrical relation between the two alternate sets of points, each set of which is suitably connected to its corresponding set of spark plugs. Contd. | ||