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 Joseph Lucas Research Laboratories discussing investigations into battery and coil ignition systems.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 37\1\ scan 155 | |
| Date | 1st July 1927 | |
| X3199 TRADE MARK THE JOSEPH LUCAS RESEARCH LABORATORIES WELL STREET BIRMINGHAM TELEGRAMS "LUCAS, BIRMINGHAM" TELEPHONE NORTHERN 2201 (PRIVATE) WHEN REPLYING PLEASE REFER TO EOT/6. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Fowler Clark, Esq., Messrs. Rolls-Royce Ltd., DERBY. 1st July 1927. Your Ref: - EFC2/T. Dear Mr. Fowler Clark, I am very interested to hear the particulars you give me of your investigations into battery ignition systems. I shall, of course, treat the technical information you give me as in strict confidence, and shall be glad if you will do the same. It is not altogether accurate to say that we have dropped the manufacture of battery ignition apparatus. We are, in fact, at present supplying Daimler with fairly large quantities of coil ignition sets in addition to magnetos, and we are also supplying coil ignition apparatus of different kinds, although in small quantities, in many cases, to a number of different firms. I quite agree with you that the old reasons advanced to account for the unsatisfactory nature of coil ignition do not obtain today. It is true the switching off difficulty remains, but I quite agree that with the precautions to which you refer, or others having a similar end in view - we ourselves almost invariably use a device which we have protected, putting a small warning lamp across the cutout contacts - this drawback has no very great weight. I agree also that the trouble of platinum contacts piling up under the action of uni-directional current is a drawback, but I should not say that this was by any means the reason for the comparative neglect to manufacture coil ignition equipments. I believe the chief reason why the magneto is still so much the | ||