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 memo discussing the causes and remedies for passenger sickness in cars, such as vibration, rolling, and exhaust fumes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 53\4\ Scan055 | |
| Date | 5th December 1923 | |
| TO G.T. FROM P.N. [Handwritten notes]: HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} (circled). These suggestions may assist you in your Experiments. Please make enquiry A [Stamped]: F.R. [Stamped]: RECEIVED 6 DEC 1923 CHASSIS NO. 12-EM - 10,000 MILES TEST. In reply to your CJ6/E4.12.23, there is probably no complaint more difficult to deal with satisfactorily than that of "sea-sickness" of a passenger in a car. The trouble might be due to a variety of causes according to the temperament of the passenger. (1) There is the trouble known as "train-sickness" suffered by many people, and this is apparently due to vibration only, felt by the spine. (2) Then there is the sickness felt by some people which is alleged to be the result of the rolling of a car when cornering. This has generally taken place with closed cars where the centre of gravity of the body is high, but since we have fitted shock-absorbers carefully adjusted, this source of complaint has practically disappeared. (3) Further, there is the passenger who gets the feeling of sickness resulting from exhaust fumes or fumes coming up from the engine room of the car. In certain cases, the fumes have, combined with the rolling of the car, produced unhappy results. The steps taken in the past in respect of shock-absorbers indicated above, have been effective so far. Considerable improvement has also been achieved with regard to fumes arising from the engine room, [text crossed out] in connection with the engine breather fitted. Care has been taken in connection with coachwork, that fumes are not able to find their way into closed bodies through spaces in boards or through the slots round the pedals, and in regard to this, our efforts were primarily directed to preventing the rising of temperature in the front of a car by the prevention of hot air and gases getting through the floorboards. There is always, of course, the likelihood that exhaust gases will find their way by suction into the rear of a car when travelling at fairly fast speeds, if, in the case of a closed car the rear windows are open, or in the case of an Open Touring car the hood is either down or fixed in the Open [touring crossed out] position without any side curtains at the rear. The avoidance of these exhaust gases being collected in the bodies in the way indicated, will be a very difficult P.T.O. | ||