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 concerning the performance and thickness of ebonite separators in car batteries.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 54\5\ Scan082 | |
| Date | 30th March 1926 | |
| X4655 c. wd.{Mr Wood/Mr Whitehead} EFCl/T. 30th March, 1926. Mr. G.R.N.Minchin, Messrs. Peto & Radford, 50, Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W.1. Dear Mr. Minchin, Re Ebonite Separators. Referring to yours of the 18th inst. We wrote the Exide Co. on the question of the thickness of the separators as per copy attached, and received their answer as per copy attached, from which you will see that they consider their ebonite on the average is about .43 mm. In the meanwhile Mr. McKinnon has examined some opened-up cells on a standard battery of theirs which has done 10,000 miles, in which case also the ebonite separators had suffered in a similar way, but in his opinion it was not due to lack of thickness of ebonite separators so much as to the material being wrong. In the circumstances it would appear that we can only leave it to your judgement as to what you continue to put in the batteries. For your information I am sending you a copy of the general report on the comparison of the 10,000 mile P & R battery (due particulars of which you had and opened-up cells of which you examined at the time) with that of the Exide which has recently finished its life. A copy of this report has also been given to the Exide Co. You will see that in a general way, the batteries are considered to have done approximately equally. We are pleased to hear that you are altering the arrangement of the ribbing of the wood separators of the 40/50 P & R batteries to bring this into line with that of the other batteries. Yours faithfully, FOR ROLLS-ROYCE LIMITED. | ||