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).
Report concluding against the adoption of a single wire petrol gauge due to issues with needle oscillation.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 167\4\ img174 | |
| Date | 14th July 1937 | |
| -2- (2) Needle Oscillation. This is very much worse than the needle movement with our standard gauge, but here again it might be argued that correct readings of the petrol gauge would only be taken when the car was stationary, so that when the car was running the petrol gauge would merely serve as an indicator, but on the other hand, serious objection might be taken by a customer to this continued rapid oscillation of the petrol gauge needle. Conclusion. Our conclusion is therefore that a single wire petrol gauge as a petrol tank level indicator is reasonably satisfactory, but would cause an unfavourable impression to the customer due to the needle oscillation on bad roads and would probably give a further impression that we were cutting the price of instruments unnecessarily. We would like to add to this that a single wire petrol gauge would have to be modified to meet our scheme of green light warning when the tank is low and also, the tank design would have to be modified to accommodate the single wire gauge. We do not, therefore, recommend at this stage the adoption of a single wire petrol gauge. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Wst. | ||