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).
Report comparing a French battery to an original Exide battery, concluding they are practically identical.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 46\3\ Scan075 | |
| Date | 18th May 1922 guessed | |
| - 3 - In regard to the French battery which you inform us you have fitted in thirty different cases to replace faulty Exide batteries, I intended to ask for a sample but find on EFC's return that we have a sample of this battery at the Works which you kindly supplied to us. I have therefore personally dismantled and carefully examined this battery, comparing it with the Exide, and find that whilst, externally, it is practically a facsimile of the original Exide battery, inside also the same similarity is met with to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish between the Exide and the French Battery details. The plates are similar in construction, are only separated by the single wood separators exactly as was the original Exide with which most of the trouble has been connected, and there is no single feature in the French battery which departs in design or principle from the original Exide. In view of this it is difficult to understand why you should obtain any better service with this battery than with the original Exide, whilst in comparison with the latest type Exide it has very serious faults which certainly must sooner or later develop under running conditions. As a matter of fact, in view of your remarks that this battery had in no solitary instance given any trouble, I expected to find a distinct departure from the design of the Exide so far as supporting and separation of the plates was concerned, but after having carefully compared the two I cannot find a solitary reason why the French battery should be any improvement over the original Exide. I do not want you to think that I had already made up my mind as to the value of the two batteries. As a matter of fact I had a perfectly open mind on the subject and was rather prejudiced in favour of the French battery in view of your very positive statements, but in the absence of any evidence that any further care has been taken in the design of the French battery to avoid the troubles that have developed in the Exide, and since the two batteries are practically identical, I feel certain that whatever value you have obtained from the use of the French battery exists because the makers have in the first place charged the battery themselves, in the second place the car has not been standing in a Coachbuilders for weeks, or months after the battery has been charged and fitted but has been actually running on the road, and finally it has not even had the disadvantage of transit from London to Paris in a charged condition, with the usual well-known delay which occurs in getting cars through the Customs. | ||