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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).
Battery weight versus performance, overcharging issues, and design improvements for car chassis.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 38\5\  Scan323
Date  16th June 1923 guessed
  
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We realise that the subject must be looked at from all points of view and the writer having carried out a lot of fairly careful tests with batteries on his own 40/50 car tries to look at the matter from an all round chassis point of view and is very much with you in your desire to reduce the weight of the chassis.

Weighing up all considerations the writer is personally of the opinion that we are not justified in asking you to add weight over our battery which we think will be found to be all right.

We believe that the batteries suffered rather from overcharging. The batteries we supply to you are much more able to withstand abuse from overcharging than other types, but if you could adopt on the 40/50 chassis a positively driven dynamo with the excellent characteris-tics of the dynamo on the 20HP chassis we think that this would still further assist a battery.

For over two years the writer has had in use a 6 cell battery made up of different makes and types of cells, some of which are identical to those in the two makes you are using. Some of these cells have failed and others are in excellent condition and the data gained from this battery on a 40/50 car enables us to speak with a certain degree of confidence as to the life of our batteries

We are constantly making minor improvements in the construction of the battery which tend to increase its life and even during the last few months three or four such details have been added and more will be later on.

We put forward a suggestion some weeks ago that for future supplied we wished to make up the battery a little differently. This altered construction has certain improvements in it, and you said that as far as you were concerned you were willing, but that you must ask your Sales side before finally accepting.

We are very anxious that you do agree to this and that you will bring pressure to bear on your Sales Dept. to consent to it. If that is done it makes it additionally easier for us to say that we cannot honestly urge you to put a larger battery on the chassis.

The writer will be in Derby shortly and would be very glad to discuss the matter with you further if you desire it.

Of course if you have definitely allotted an extra amount of weight to the battery and decided to have it, there is no more to be said and we should fall in with the idea of supplying a larger battery but we do not wish p.t.o.
  
  


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