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).
Article detailing Blue Bird's steering stabiliser, an inertia-type device also available for private cars.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 118\2\ scan0204 | |
| Date | 1st March 1935 | |
| Reprinted from The Autocar March 1st, 1935. BLUE BIRD'S STEERING STABILISER Improved Steering Given by Inertia Type of Stabiliser, Which is Available for Private Cars MOST people have seen that the modified Blue Bird with which Sir Malcolm Campbell has been waiting at Daytona for his attempt to reach 300 m.p.h. has been fitted this year with a device on the steering gear known as a stabiliser. After his last attempt on the land speed record, when Sir Malcolm Campbell was successful in covering a mile at 272 m.p.h., he announced that he had considerable difficulty in holding Blue Bird owing to the roughness of the beach. In fact, after the run his arms and wrists had to be massaged. It was on hearing this that the patentees of the Titan stabiliser approached Mr. Reid Railton, the designer of Blue Bird, and suggested that an application of his invention might prove valuable in future record attempts, with the result that a double Titan stabiliser was fitted for this year. The principle of the Titan steering stabiliser is already well known, since it has been on the market for some years as a fitting for private cars. First, it should be noted that it is not intended simply as a device to cure “wheel wobble” or some such trouble, but is claimed to be of benefit to almost any car. Fitted to a fast car with very light steering, the stabiliser should steady it at higher speeds but retain the ease of steering so desirable at low speeds, since the action is to offer a very high resistance to sudden or rapid deflections of the steering, but at the same time to offer no appreciable resistance to the ordinary operation of the steering by the driver. It is not a friction-disc type of damper, nor strictly an hydraulic damper, it depends for its resistance on the inertia of a rotating weight damped in oil. Looking at the accompanying drawing of the standard stabiliser, its action can be seen. The container for the rotating weight is clamped to the front axle, and a lever, operating the sliding block which rotates the weight, is connected through links and universal joints to the track rod. As the track rod moves so does the weight with little resistance, but if a sudden movement or kick is given by the wheels this is resisted to a much greater extent. In the case of the special application to Sir Malcolm Campbell’s car, two rotating weights are used, connected to the track-rod by a double linkage. Both the fact that Sir Malcolm Campbell is using the stabiliser and that it is being satisfactorily used on many cars at the moment (it is also standard on several models of one British manufacturer) go to show that it is not just a device to cure “wobble” but is of general benefit to the steering gear, and by relieving the steering mechanism of the strain of resisting sudden movements it may well reduce wear. Adaptations are available for any make, and the price for standard cars is £2 17s. 6d. The patentees are T.T.N. Patents, Ltd., Park Gardens, Alfold, Billingshurst. (Left) The single Titan stabiliser for private cars. ROTATING WEIGHT AXLE UNIVERSAL JOINTS TRACK ROD A double Titan stabiliser is fitted to Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Blue Bird. AXLE TRACK ROD Printed in Great Britain by The Cornwall Press Ltd., Paris Garden, London, S.E.1. | ||