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 discussing the testing of electric clocks and the development of car heating systems.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 164\1\ img253 | |
| Date | 6th January 1941 | |
| File Clocks (elec) Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}1/ML. 6.1.41. C.W.Nicholls, Esq., Messrs S.Smith & Sons Ltd., Cricklewood Works, Edgware Road, LONDON N.W.2. Dear Nicholls, To reply to your letter of the 13th. December. I attach a report on the behaviour of the electric clocks we have been testing. I think that for Rolls Royce cars we shall have to have something that gives a higher degree of accuracy, though I must admit that, for less expensive models, the results might be passable. We have installed all the heaters, some being reasonably quiet while others are more noisy than we can tolerate. We shall be letting you have a report on these when we have had more use from them. I have come to the conclusion that the ultimate arrangement for luxury cars will be an underseat heater and an entirely separate defroster unit, tapped into the same pipe lines on the dashboard. The reason I favour this arrangement is because, with any reasonable size of heater, all the output is required to get satisfactory defrosting, leaving nothing for the passenger's feet. It is not satisfactory to have a heater and yet not be able to keep warm, due to icing conditions. Furthermore, in the more expensive vehicle, the owner will often sit in the back, in which case he gets little or no benefit from the heater on the dashboard. For less expensive cars, I think a dashboard heater is all right with an electric defroster. I shall be interested to know whether you have any design of underseat heater which you could complete and submit to us for test. Yours sincerely, Attachment. | ||