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).
Letter discussing the weight and performance characteristics of a transmitter, comparing it to standard transmissions.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 136\2\ scan0378 | |
| Date | 8th April 1944 | |
| TURBO TRANSMITTERS LIMITED CAMBRIDGE ROAD, HANWORTH The weight of the 12 1/2 in Transmitter with oil is about 110 lbs. the weight of the standard reverse box is about 65 lbs.; the gear box case is unnecessarily heavy. You will of course appreciate that the Transmitter has to do duty as a flywheel; I do not know the weight of your flywheel. Naturally I have got to think that your suggestions for improving the Transmitter are not only retrograde but are the rankest heresy. Seriously I think that the "fussiness", which you are suggesting is far more apparent on a short run such as you had than on a car in ordinary use. In order to try the Transmitter, you were purposely producing conditions which were calculated to produce "fussiness". Had it been a standard transmission, you would have been changing gear and revving up your engine continually had you produced similar conditions. You are also, if I may be so presumptuous as to say so, thinking in terms of Rolls-Royce and Bentley, where you have an engine that you can afford to keep slogging in top gear, even if it is not very good for it. I do not know whether you have told Grylls what you are proposing to do. I saw him some time ago and the suggestion was made that we should fit a Transmitter to a Humber Snipe car in use at Derby. I did not like the idea much as the Humber Snipe engine (not Super Snipe) is too small for the Transmitter; I have not been able to send him a scheme for doing so yet as we have had rather a lot of work to do. At the same time, I do not want to appear impolite and wonder whether you would tell him that you have other plans in mind. I am going to London on Monday for two or three days and then to Birmingham but expect to be back here by the end of next week. Yours sincerely Peter. 8.4.44 Both drawings enclosed. | ||