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 discussing headlamp wiring faults, horn modifications, and demonstrator car upgrades.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27a\1\ Scan230 | |
| Date | 1st February 1935 | |
| Rolls-Royce, Ltd., Derby.............Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Levallois. Srl/Crn.I.2.35. Dear "Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}", The following has occurred to me, and I am wondering if you could arrange to remedy the trouble prior to chassis leaving "W" if you consider my point sufficiently interesting. The wiring system is carried out in such a manner that the two headlamps are protected by the same fuse. There fore, when this fails for some reason or other, a complete 'black out' is the result, which apart from being most unpleasant is extremely dangerous. This occurred recently on a Phantom ll, and was due to a short and was traced to the "Bosch" dimmer mechanism. As you know, these switches are so made that they cannot be shorted entirely, and if the headlamps are run off two separate fuses, the result would be that only one headlamp fails. Our customer nearly killed himself on this occasion, and we are having a sorry time with him at present. I personally have experienced two headlamp failures on Bentley cars, which were very unpleasant, and on these occasions the failures were due to the bulbs in the headlamps. Would you please let me have your ideas on these matters. Another matter will require attention to avoid us expense in carrying out modifications in regard to the recent French law concerning noise. This forbids the use of dual detoned Klaxon horns. We are now obliged to modify these horns, cutting out one of the intruments for town work. Could not this modification be carried out before the chassis leave W ? If these matters "ne sont pas de votre rayon", please let me know where next to apply. Finally, would you suggest that I should fit to our demonstrator, prior to putting it on the road - it is shortly leaving the coachbuilders - the lead bronze bearings, or run the car 15,000 miles and then carry out the modification ? Personally, I prefer the latter idea. Sincerely yours, | ||