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).
Issues with Exide batteries, the rationale for continuing with them, and a proposal for a meeting with the manufacturer.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 46\3\ Scan077 | |
| Date | 16th June 1922 guessed | |
| - 5 - all day on the open roads of France with the battery charging all the time, over-charging is certain to take place, with the resulting spongy plates and tendency to disintegrate. I feel we must point out that the Exide battery was not picked upon without very considerable Experimental Work being carried out on six or seven different types of batteries, and that our reluctance to agree to departure from a standard is only in accordance with direct instructions from the Heads of the Company, and is not in any sense due to lack of "bonnevolonte" to help you in your difficulties. In fact, I think that this rather lengthy report should make it clear that the battery question has been receiving continual attention at Derby and further, that to jump from one type to another is not necessarily to get you out of the troubles, as all of our experience at Derby goes to show that it is better not to take apparent short cuts to safety, as such short cuts have in the past invariably landed us in greater difficulties than those we were trying to escape from. Having experienced certain troubles with the Exide Batteries, an examination of other makes of batteries did not disclose any one make which attempted to avoid the troubles which the Exide Company had landed us in, and therefore there was obviously no reason for abandoning the Exide for some other type, but rather since we had started upon the Exide, it was better to come to a working arrangement with the makers by which improvements we found necessary were incorpora ted at the earliest possible date and in addition to a working scheme was arrived at to our mutual benefit by which troubles, when they did occur, were overcome with the least inconvenience to the customer. In order to obtain the maximum benefit from your criticisms, I propose to put your letters as they stand before the Technical Dept. of the Exide battery Company and ask them to meet me at Derby to discuss the points, at some convenient date, as obviously one would consider that their Paris representative must have reported on the faulty batteries he examined, to Headquarters, and if he has not done so, then Headquarters will certainly ask for an explanation with a description of the causes which ultimately resulted in battery failures. BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} IBY | ||