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).
American production procedures, focusing on chassis standardisation and issues with the Bosch battery ignition system.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\J\December1922\ Scan100 | |
| Date | 27th December 1922 | |
| The cars EXH. HEATED THROTTLE DERBY POLICY REF DERBY & SPRINGFIELD PRODUCT TO B.J. FROM R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to C.J. WOR.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to HY.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to UY. OF. RE. AMERICAN PROCEDURE. STAMP: ORIGINAL RECEIVED DEC 29 1922 Handwritten notes: RR/M27.12.22. RR/AM HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} X4305 X4390 X4275 X3614 Ce EX file MR. Olley should not expect much correspondence from me, not because I do not wish to write direct to him, but owing to the multitude of things connected with designs I find it difficult to send him as much information as I should wish. I am looking upon the procedure as follows:- That Mr. Bailey (our Production Engineer) should advise Mr. Olley (the Springfield Production Engineer) of any alterations which are sufficiently advanced to be likely to become standardised, and also HY.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} will advise him of everything that is standardised at the same time as we adopt it. I have written before that I consider every feature of the American chassis should follow exactly the English chassis, so as to be undiscernible one from the other. I mean by this to include the profile of the handles and all the little mechanism as well as the more important parts. For instance you will remember that I was not satisfied with the Bosch battery ignition, as though we found it to function well technically, there were features which were wanting in soundness and reliability, such as:- (1) The bearing for the spindle is a single one and is too far from the cam, and coupled with the fact that the governor produces a couple this will in time lead to irregular action of the cam. (2) The second point complained of by me was that the condenser contacts were not sufficiently reliable and we got the impression that the condenser was crushed into too small a space. In the Ignition we have designed and made ourselves for the Goshawk, and (1) | ||