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).
Issues with the Goshawk ignition governor's advance characteristic and the need for a new design.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 51\5\ Scan215 | |
| Date | 24th March 1922 | |
| To E. {Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} from EFC. {E. Fowler Clarke - Electrical Engineer} c. to Da. {Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to By. {R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} c. to Hs. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to EP. {G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} X 4354 EFC {E. Fowler Clarke - Electrical Engineer} 1/T24.3.22. RE AUTOMATIC ADVANCE OF GOSHAWK IGNITION. I had hoped to have seen you again before your return to West WitteringHenry Royce's home town, to discuss with you the question of the Goshawk ignition governor, the advance characteristic of which was, as originally arranged by West WitteringHenry Royce's home town, found to be unsuited to the engine. As you know, we have done some work on this governor with a view to improving the advance characteristic, particulars of which work I am preparing for you in a report with diagram and sheet of curves, in which the principles underlying the difficulties of securing a suitable characteristic will be, we hope, made quite clear. You may know that up to the present we have been proceeding on the lines that the automatic advance has only to supply an advance of 12° on the cam between cam speeds of 250 and 1500 r.p.m., but it is now understood to be desirable that the automatic advance shall not only be capable of doing this, but shall also be capable of retarding the cam about 11° when the speed drops from 250 down to zero, reckoning for convenience on 250 r.p.m. as a sort of datum speed. We shall be demonstrating to you in our full report how impossible it is to do this with the present design if governor, and we wonder whether you have considered making a new design of governor, introducing features that would enable us to produce Contd:- | ||