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 the battery ignition contact maker, including distributor and condenser connection modifications.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\Q\April1927-June1927\ 113 | |
| Date | 10th June 1927 | |
| EFC. } TO HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} } FROM R.{Sir Henry Royce} C.c. to - BJ. WOR.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} ORIGINAL R3/M10.6.27. BATTERY IGNITION CONTACT MAKER. X40055 x4652 v2894. This matter should not rest for a moment until we have made some definite improvements. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} has suggested adopting the Bosch mushroom rotor on the distributor to reduce the risk of the nitric acid from the jump spark distributor getting into the contact maker. I have suggested removing the distributor entirely during the test so that if it is found to affect the tungsten points we could change it to wipe distributor. We have sent you a design of an alteration to the contact maker to give a small percentage of scrub on the points so arranged that the tungstens remain parallel. We have avoided any additional inertia to the moving part, and we have damped the very slight flexibility of the stationary part. This is a hopeful scheme and should be tested out at once. If you cannot get the parts please let me know. Regarding the connections to the condenser it has occurred to me that the steel rocker and steel spring, and anything having self induction in the circuit between the points and the condenser, might increase the sparking, and I have suggested a round laminated copper flexible connection of suitable section arranged as directly as possible to the condenser from the tungsten points. One convenient way would be to have on this present standard arrangement a split tube connecting the block with the condenser, and having an insulated flexible passing through the middle of it so as to reduce its self induction to the minimum, similar to concentric cable. R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||