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).
Investigation into the cause of explosions in the silencer on the Phantom model, comparing it to the Silver Ghost.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\P\2July1926-September1926\ Scan093 | |
| Date | 1st August 1926 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c.c. to BJ. Nor. c.c. to RG.{Mr Rowledge} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c.c. to DA.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} EY. c.c. to OY. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}2/LG23. 8.26. X8230 X8140 EXPLOSIONS IN SILENCER. As this complaint is considered by Sales to be one of the worst features on the Phantom, we are continuing our investigations. It is going to be a difficult fault to entirely eliminate but we ought to be able to get back to the Silver Ghost standard. It was however a frequent source of complaint on that type of car. Cases of frequent explosions in the silencer which we have investigated on Phantoms have been caused by excessive friction in the governor control mechanism. We attach a chart which gives a comparison of lag in the operation of the control due to friction. A large number of Phantoms were produced without the ball bearings to the camshaft. It will be seen that the Phantom is definitely worse than the Silver Ghost. These curves were taken with the parts all fitted to have the minimum friction. There is more chance of the extra friction getting into the Phantom controls, for instance, we use adjustable ball joints which can easily be adjusted to increase the friction. We are also getting complaints of the inconsistent setting of the hand control of the governor i.e., the engine either stops or runs much faster than it was originally set. Tests we have made shew that if all the parts are fitted up contd :- | ||