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).
Dynamo performance and potential modifications for a customer's car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 59\1\ Scan052 | |
| Date | 20th November 1932 | |
| K0045 To PN.{Mr Northey} from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst. c. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} c. WOr.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. CX.{Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst.7/AD20.11.32. RE : SIR NORMAN WATSON 38-MY With regard to this customer, we are not convinced by your memo that the conditions under which his car will be run will be any worse than that of certain other cars now in service. Leaving the car for short periods standing will not affect the battery and we assume also that the car will be run on second and third speeds probably more frequently than top in the mountainous districts referred to. This would give a satisfactory lower "cutting in" speed of the dynamo. The vibrator control is still inevitably some distance ahead as we do not intend to fit these to production cars until we are absolutely xxxx satisfied with their reliability. We do not favour the idea of giving customers something special as it rather compromises us if anything goes wrong, and if the idea spreads we shall be faced with supplying a number of "special" customers with non-standard parts. From our point of view we are far more concerned with the type of customer who runs his or her car habitually in congested traffic areas and therefore runs the dynamo on the average below its cutting speed at the same time using the starter for frequent halts. Sir Norman Watson could, if necessary, have a switch fixed on the instrument board which would short-circuit the dynamo resistances when required But it should be clearly understood that we cannot recommend this procedure officially owing to the fact that if the resistances are left short-circuited with the battery fully charged their is danger of the dynamo overheating. He would have to take full responsibility for running the dynamo on full charge with the resistances short-circuited in view of this, as an oversight on his part might damage the dynamo still under guarantee etc. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst. | ||