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 from a battery supplier regarding issues with swollen plates in their product.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 54\1\ Scan027 | |
| Date | 15th September 1925 | |
| X. 4617 P. Works, Dagenham Dock, Essex TELEPHONE VICTORIA 3667. 4-LINES PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE. TELEGRAMS CONCENTRATION, SOWEST, LONDON. Manufacturers of P & R Accumulators. Established 1889 PETO & RADFORD Proprietors - Pritchett & Gold and E.P.S. Company Ltd. 50 GROSVENOR GARDENS, LONDON. S.W.1. YOUR REF _________ OUR REF M/5. DIRECTORS: SIR ARCHIBALD C. GOLD F.C. GRAHAM MENZIES G.R.N. MINCHIN WILLIAM PETO C.R.D. PRITCHETT T.W. PRITCHETT. 15th September 1925. Messrs. Rolls Royce Ltd., DERBY. For the attention of Mr. Fowler Clark. Dear Sirs, We thank you for yours of the 10th inst. re R.R.11 battery on 40/50 H.P. car. We think that the performance may, as you say, be considered reasonable because we think the battery must have had rather a hard time, probably doing a lot of high speed work in daylight and not much lighting or starting and consequently bound to come in for a good deal of over-charging. Probably in an ordinary user's hands it would have lasted quite 50% longer. There is one thing which interests us in it and that is your report that the plates were swollen and difficult to get out of the containers. After we had made about three or four dozen of these batteries our Works came to the conclusion that there was not enough room in the boxes to allow for the expansion of the plate and we took 1/8" off the width of the plates to allow it to expand more. The trouble you have got therefore in this battery with the plates expanding, which probably brought about its ultimate downfall, should not at present happen except in the very first few of the batteries that we supplied. We should rather like to see the remains of the battery and if there is a cell which is not yet opened up would you please send it to us at our Works for inspection. Yours faithfully, PETO & RADFORD. GRNMinchin | ||