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 from an accumulator manufacturer discussing battery size and weight considerations for cars fitted with radios.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 164\4\ img230 | |
| Date | 3rd March 1936 | |
| Works, Dagenham Dock, Essex S6122. TELEPHONE SLOANE 7164. 5 LINES PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE TELEGRAMS CONCENTRATION, SOWEST, LONDON. Manufacturers of Accumulators for over 50 years. PETO & RADFORD Proprietors - Pritchett & Gold and E.P.S. Company Ltd. 50 GROSVENOR GARDENS, LONDON. S.W.1. YOUR REF M/5. OUR REF________ 3rd March, 1936. H.E. West, Esq., Messrs. Rolls-Royce, Ltd., DERBY. Dear Mr. West, Mr. Breeden has been writing to me about his car, for which he seems to hold me personally responsible since I made him get it and, incidentally, he is wanting me to help him to get a 4 1/4. He was telling me about some trouble he had with the battery running down and correspondence he has had with Derby on the subject. He told me that he attributed this partly to the radio and I think that we ought to consider this question of radio in our ideas of cutting down the size and weight of batteries. I am at present without a car until I get my 4 1/4 and I have had lent to me a 1935 Continental Phantom which has a radio set on it and whilst the 40/50 battery would appear to deal with it, I must say I think it is almost the last straw for the 25 H.P. and Bentley cars. The whole radio set is a considerable weight and if the owner is prepared to add that, I think he ought to be prepared to add the extra 7 or 8 lbs. for at least one size larger battery. Would it be possible to design the battery crate so that a size larger battery could be fitted to cars with this or other exceptional electrical loads without great upheaval and infinite trouble? It used to be a common practice to make the battery box of such a size that the next size battery could be slipped in but whether this is still done or not, I do not know. I believe it is on Austins. A stipulation could be made that if a radio set is fitted the owner would be wanted to fit a larger size battery, but what do you think about it? Incidentally, Derby wrote to Mr. Breeden on February | ||