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 Hooper & Co (Coachbuilders) criticising the fuse and fuse box design on the Phantom III chassis.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 166\7\ img061 | |
| Date | 4th February 1937 | |
| COPY. Hooper & Co (Coachbuilders) Ltd. 54, St.{Capt. P. R. Strong} James's Street, S.W.1. February 4th 1937. W.Cowen Esq., Rolls-Royce Ltd., 14/15 Conduit Street, W.1. Dear Mr Cowen, Further to our conversation today, I give you herewith, an account of my criticism of the existing type of fuse and fuse box as fitted to Phantom III chassis. You will recollect that on the older type chassis you had a fuse carrier with two set screws - one either end, and all that was necessary to renew a fuse was to undo the two screws, put a new piece of fuse wire across the bridge, and do up the screws again. You have abandoned this on the Phantom III chassis and are fitting glass tubular type fuses. I quite see that these have advantages, in that there is no screwing and unscrewing to be done, and presumably there is less risk of unauthorised persons putting in a wrong type of fuse wire unless they deliberately go out and buy fuses with the wrong wire in them. When I first took delivery of my Phantom III, I had very considerable trouble with the fuses, owing to a sticking charge regulator. This has now been rectified, and is not the cause of my complaint as it was just a piece of bad luck, but it did bring me in very close contact with the fuse box, which was always requiring a change of fuse. On one very dark night, and in stormy weather, I blew the dynamo fuse, and knowing that the load of the headlights and all other electrical gear was pretty considerable, I decided to change the fuse there and then. I succeeded in getting the fuse in between two pairs of clips with the most alarming results, as the whole of the electrical gear appeared to go wrong, and it took me some time to discover the cause. | ||