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 accumulator manufacturer Peto & Radford, discussing the results of a long-term battery test on a Bentley car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 164\3\ img073 | |
| Date | 2nd December 1937 | |
| Works, Dagenham Dock, Essex TELEPHONE SLOANE 7164. 5 LINES PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE TELEGRAMS DAGENITE, SOWEST, LONDON. Manufacturers of Accumulators for over 50 years. PETO & RADFORD Proprietors - Pritchett & Gold and E.P.S. Company Ltd. 50 GROSVENOR GARDENS, LONDON, S.W.1. YOUR REF _________ OUR REF M/5. 2nd December, 1937. H.E. West, Esq., Messrs. Rolls-Royce, Ltd., DERBY. Dear Mr. West, I know that you are no longer looking after the car electrical work but as you and I started a particular test on a battery on my car and as I am not quite sure to whom we ought to write, I am writing to you with the idea of your handing it on to whoever is concerned. You will remember that when I first had my 3½ litre Bentley nearly three years ago, we put on a battery which had plates in some cells thinner and more numerous than in others which were thicker and less numerous. The idea was chiefly to find out how this plate to which we were tending, was going to stand up. During the life of the battery it was also to be noticed whether there was any difference in the amount of water required between the various cells. As far as it was possible to observe, there was not any difference. When I changed the 3½ litre for the 4¼ litre car nine months ago the battery was transferred to it and so is about 2¾ years old, having done between 25,000 and 30,000 miles. It got so feeble that in cold weather it would hardly start and I thought that short circuiting must have set in and it had better be opened up. As a result of opening up we found the whole thing to be in remarkably good condition, all the plates were surprisingly good with hardly any shedding at all and they obviously had not yet had sufficient use to say which set of positives i.e. thick or thin, were going to break up first. It looked as if they had only done [Handwritten notes:] [Top left corner:] War [Top centre:] 602 1 [Centre, over address:] RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/RC{R. Childs} [Centre, below RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/RC{R. Childs}:] Please file in your battery file. WW | ||