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).
Instructions regarding the Goshawk electrical system and operating it with a disconnected battery.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 51\2\ Scan114 | |
| Date | 5th June 1923 | |
| X4338 To By. {R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} from EFC. {E. Fowler Clarke - Electrical Engineer} c. to EP. {G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} c. By {R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} /NHW. EFC {E. Fowler Clarke - Electrical Engineer} 2/T5.6.23. X.4338 - GOSHAWK ELECTRICAL SYSTEM. Further to our EFC {E. Fowler Clarke - Electrical Engineer} 2/T24.5.23, addressed to R. {Sir Henry Royce} , it is not possible by means of a resistance satisfactorily to arrange for the lamps and battery ignition to be operated with the battery disconnected. With the present dynamo, therefore, the instruction stands as at present in the Instruction Book, that no attempt should be made to operate lamps, ignition, or any other part of the electrical system, with battery disconnected, except in real emergency. That is to say, the putting on of the ignition or charging switch in these circumstances should be sedulously avoided. Unless the battery circuit is broken either internally or externally, and cannot immediately be rectified, the battery should be left connected, even if otherwise faulty, and the lamps operated in the usual way. If, however, the battery connection is broken and cannot be remade, there is no way at present out of the difficulty and if it is necessary to operate the lights for the purpose of getting home in the dark, the risk of burning them out must be taken, the car being driven at a very moderate speed only. In such cases it is safer and allows of a higher speed, to have on all the lamp load that is possible. EFC. {E. Fowler Clarke - Electrical Engineer} | ||