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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).
Letter from an accumulator manufacturer discussing a persistent ignition problem with 20 HP cars, and the instruction manual's detail on points.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 61b\1\  scan0088
Date  15th May 1930
  
X2894
Works, Dagenham Dock, Essex
TELEPHONE VICTORIA 3667.
5 LINES PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE.
TELEGRAMS CONCENTRATION, SOWEST, LONDON.
Manufacturers of P & R Accumulators. Established 1889.
PETO & RADFORD
Proprietors - Pritchett & Gold and E.P.S. Company Ltd.
50 GROSVENOR GARDENS,
LONDON.
S.W.1.
DIRECTORS:
SIR ARCHIBALD G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} GOLD
F.C. GRAHAM MENZIES
G.R.N. MINCHIN
WILLIAM PETO
C.R.D. PRITCHETT
T.W. PRITCHETT
YOUR REF
OUR REF M/5.
15th May 1930.

E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Fowler Clark, Esq.,
Messrs. Rolls Royce Ltd.,
DERBY.

Dear Fowler Clark,

Thank you for yours of the 14th inst. I am glad you are going to look into the question of this ignition. Perhaps I am unfortunate, but I know many people who have 20 H.P. cars and I have never heard of one of them yet that has not had this trouble. When my car has been put right the engine fires beautifully and you could not wish for or imagine anything better than the way in which it turns over when the car has been standing idle. It is almost impossible to know that the engine is running. If only some means could be found whereby the engine would remain like that, it would be a very good thing but it all disappears in about one to two hundred miles and the engine is lumpy directly it is throttled down slowly.

I still think that in the year 1930 it is rather a bad admission to have to put in the Instruction Book a lot of detail about platinum points, when one can buy any American car and not know that there are tungsten points on it as long as you have it.

Yours sincerely,

G.R.N. Minchin
  
  


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