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).
Reliability and control systems of dynamos, and the move away from vibrator regulators.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 31\1\ Scan119 | |
| Date | 9th April 1921 | |
| X1402 To R.R. of America Inc from R.{Sir Henry Royce} (For attention of OY). c. to CJ. c. to EFC. c. to HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} X.294. RE DYNAMOS - CY4/C9.4.21). X.3878. X.4284. X.1402. In reply to yours regarding the dynamo for the car, you will remember in a recent letter (copy of which was sent to you) I concluded that you ought to find your own dynamo in U.S.A., but that at present Derby had not been satisfied with any you had sent us, chiefly in regard to reliability and silence in operation. We shall therefore be expecting you to send us further specimens very shortly. You will remember that in the early days I had favoured the use of a vibrator regulator, but from the tests made by Mr. Clark these have not proved entirely reliable, and we were at a loss to find one that we could apply to the car. It stands to reason that such an arrangement of control must be less reliable than a non-moving system without make and break contacts. My early impression was that the greater output for a given weight could be obtained in this manner at a time it is most needed, than with a third brush or similar control system. Apparently this had not been proved entirely true, the heating effects being much the same in both classes of dynamo at the slow speed, and as we are out for increased simplicity wherever possible, we had given up the idea of using a vibrator regulator, which I formerly favoured. Up-to-the-present;-M' Contd. | ||