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).
Vehicle comfort factors including pivoting headlamps, ventilation, air conditioning, and suspension dynamics.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\1\ scan0327 | |
| Date | 25th March 1939 | |
| - 2 - One speaker declared that headlamps pivoting with the wheels, but through a greater angle, would materially improve the illumination of the road, and so improve comfort in travel during darkness. From the aspect of physical comfort, the question of ventilation and air conditioning is also related to mental comfort, and is so taken first. It appears to be generally agreed that a minimum requirement of fresh air supply for comfort is between 12 and 20 cubic feet per minute per person, and that the rate of entry of this air shall be not more than 25 m.p.h. and preferably not more than 15 m.p.h. This, and the desirability of temperature regulation so that adequate heat can be provided during cold weather, imply that ventilation finally becomes a matter of providing a special source of supply and distribution for air, and the windows must then cease to be regarded as this source of air supply. This will also mean that a quieter car interior can be obtained, since quite a large proportion of noise enters the car by direct air transmission and not by conduction through the frame etc. In this country the number of occasions on which it is desirable to cool the incoming air rather than heat it, is small, and for this reason the provision of cooling equipment is not likely to occur very soon. Since some of our cars, however, are imported from the U.S.A., in parts of which high temperature conditions prevail during an appreciable part of the year, it may be that cooling equipment for incoming air will arrive rather because it comes to be fitted on a few American cars than because it is an urgent necessity. According to a paragraph in "Disconnected Jottings" in the "Autocar" of March 3rd of this year, the equipment on the Studebaker car gives a delivery of 46 cubic feet per minute per person. Actual suppression or reduction of disturbing accelerations in the car, vertical, fore and aft, sideways and angular is a subject that is being constantly investigated, and I take it that little need be said about this. Figures given by a railway engineer suggested that more than 6° apparent sideways lean on a corner would cause discomfort. At a figure of 0.5 g.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} sideways acceleration, the maximum likely to be encountered on a car, the corresponding apparent angle is 26½°, and the car may also be rolled over at from 6° to 8°, giving perhaps 34½° all told. Reduction of the rolling of a car will produce only a small reduction in this figure, from which it seems that improvement will only be obtained by road improvement. The | ||