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).
Technical memorandum discussing battery charging issues and potential modifications to the Lucas system.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 163\6\ img005 | |
| Date | 24th December 1929 | |
| X.6016 R.{Sir Henry Royce} from E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} C. to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to PN.{Mr Northey} Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to Ry. EFC. BATTERY CHARGING. EL/M24.12.29. X.6016 X.1589 X.8780 The troubles of the men who uses his car a lot in the dark are with us every winter, and if he is an individual who indulges in excessive parking and very little running there is no hope for him but charging from some external source. If however - as in most cases - the car is being driven for a reasonable time, the battery could be kept in a state of normal charge if the current were available. As pointed out previously, in the Lucas system with a two way switch providing for a "full charge" and "half charge", the former just balances the lamp load when driving, and provides a slight excess of current of about one ampere. The instructions are to use "half charge" in summer and "full charge" in winter. The writer has one of these systems in use and has converted it as follows :- The third brush on the dynamo has been re-set to give a heavier full charge which will be used only at night time and provide an excess of current to keep the battery going. The half charge now increased to three quarters will be used for daylight running. It will be objected that such an arrangement could be mis-used by throwing the "full charge" on to the battery in the daytime. This could however, be prevented by arranging to switch on the "full charge" by means of the lighting switch either in the side lamp or head lamp positions. In the Lucas system the change in output of the dynamo is brought about by introducing external resistance, but an alternative to this might be the use of two third brushes staggered relative to each other, one to give the low and the other the high output, and connected through the lighting switch to the charging switch, the former acting | ||