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).
Improvements to clutch design, proposing a new arrangement with a non-combustible, non-metallic face and no oil.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 20\3\ Scan002 | |
| Date | 12th October 1911 | |
| [Handwritten]: Mr. Barrington x 964 [Typed]: 12th October 1911 R12/D1/121011 C.J. and Members of Technical Committee. Clutches. I was going to point out to Mr Nadin that we ought to do something in relation to clutches, as I consider our present clutch, which is very good when in good condition, is too delicate to be called perfection, as it requires such exact truth and some attention to keep it in good order. The present clutch experiments, I think, are very good and very hopeful, and our old plate clutch, I understand, is working quite nicely with the asbestos lining of the plates and the absence of oil. In some previous experiments with this plate clutch I used fibre as a non-metallic substance between the plates, but I never worked this clutch without oil. I think the new arrangement of using a non-combustible, non-metallic face and no oil should give a clutch which is quite satisfactory, the absence of oil altering the ratio between the friction it raises and the friction in motion to a much more favourable amount, and it will probably render the tendency to jagger when taking hold, imperceptible. Such a clutch will not require the fine work that | ||