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).
Condenser design and the beneficial effects of adding a high tension wire to suppress flashing at the primary points.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 34\1\ Scan030 | |
| Date | 26th April 1917 guessed | |
| EFC1/ATC1218. Contd. -4- state that it is not only necessary to connect the condenser itself to the points by as short wires as possible, but it is also necessary that the condenser (of given capacity) itself, to be most effective, must be made up in the smallest space, e.g. in the form of a rectangular block, rather than consisting of a smaller number of larger sized leaves giving the same area and capacity and arranged flat wise, as we have in the a trembler coilcondenser. We think that we can definitely say the better life of magneto points, as compared with those of trembler coils, depends upon this fact. It seems that where the current must, in getting on to the condenser plates, traverse any length of wire and spread out on any considerable area of plate, the effect is nothing like so good as where it can meet the same capacity without going so far. There is another point we would like to report in [handwritten: on] this connection and that is that the addition of a [handwritten: coil of] small, high tension wire (most conveniently between the high tension coil terminal and the centre distributor terminal) has a definitely beneficial effect in suppressing flashing at the primary points. There is always a certain amount of capacity in the high tension wires which itself has a distinct effect: the differenc can easily be s een between a high tenison spark supplied through a long high tension wire, and one through a short one, but it appears that the capacity is best not contained in the wire leading to the sparking plug, but as a separate branch to one side of this through which the current to the sparking plug itself does not actually have to pass. (Contd). | ||