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).
Test of a modified vacuum clutch control system and its comparison to the Bendix system.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 128\2\ scan0166 | |
| Date | 18th October 1932 | |
| S/W. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}..from PN.{Mr Northey} Copy to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} X 200. PN.{Mr Northey}2/WT18.10.32. When talking to Sir Henry Birkin recently he was telling me of rather a promising modification and improvement of the Bendix Vacuum Clutch Control which has been developed out in his workshop, and he arranged with me to have a run on a small Delage fitted with the device on Saturday afternoon. I was taken out with Mr. Scott, who apparently is the inventor in this case, and as usual the hook-up on this very old rackety car was so much of a "Heath-Robinson" description that it was not easy to sift out the good points, but my impression was that the method is well worth watching. The two important points of difference compared with the Bendix are :- 1. That the device works in combination with the centrifugal governor off the engine, which enables the valve to be operated causing the clutch to be opened whenever the engine speed falls below 300 revs. per minute, and not before. By this means you have not got that feeling which many people object to, i.e. a free-wheel all the time, or that woolly feeling felt when driving through a fluid flywheel. 2. The other point of difference is that the vacuum cylinder with its piston does not require any packing gland owing to the pressure being taken on the opposite side of the piston. Mr. Scott is sending to me a blue-print showing the arrangement and I will send it on to you. PN.{Mr Northey} | ||