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).
Semi-hydraulic brake system for motorcars for patent purposes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179b\1\ img105 | |
| Date | 1st October 1932 | |
| X. FROM R.{Sir Henry Royce} R1/W5.10.32. N73 C Y152-7 C. to [redacted] HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} TR.{Capt. F. W. Turner - Finance} SEMI-HYDRAULIC BRAKE SYSTEM FOR MOTORCARS ETC. N.Sch.3560. We attach herewith sketches of the above system for patent purposes. This scheme has for its object a combined means of proportioning - (1) the front and rear braking, (2) the equalising, (3) the automatic adjustment of the brakes, with efficiency and simplicity of construction and management during the life of the brake lining. Like others I use fluid pressure as the simplest and most frictionless means of transmitting, proportioning, and equalising, the braking forces. We do not however carry the fluid pressure on to the axle and into the brake drum, preferring wire ropes or rods to flexible tubing, and prefer not to carry the hydraulic fluid into the brake drum as this latter position is considered by us to be too hot to avoid vapourising the hydraulic fluid. One special novelty of the scheme is that the stroke of the operating piston is maintained practically constant by the ratchet device which controls the release of the brakes to a pre-determined amount, so maintaining the brake clearance and the stroke of the foot to practically a constant amount, until the device gets to the limit of its range, when the driver is warned that the brakes require examination. This occurs once or twice in the life of the lining. The foot pressure can be used direct to operate the brakes, or can be reinforced by a servo in the way shewn and described. E W R.{Sir Henry Royce} [STAMP: RECEIVED] | ||