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).
Development of accelerometers and seismographs for measuring car suspension and riding qualities.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 67a\1\ scan0156 | |
| Date | 21th April 1926 | |
| To OY. from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rn.{Mr Robinson} X8410 Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rml/LG21.4.26. SUSPENSION. X3900 X8410 X4564 We were very interested in your remarks re. Suspension. We thank you for the sketch of the Accelerometer given in OY3/E31626. We are constructing a small battery of accelerometers of almost precisely the same dimensions as that shown in your sketch so that we should be able to reproduce any results which you register with precisely the same degree of accuracy. We are also trying to get out an accelerometer giving a more highly selective break for an equally high, or higher periodicity. In the meantime we find we can get quite reasonably coherent relative results by the somewhat crude method of carrying a vessel filled with liquid in the back of the car and measuring the quantity lost over a given test course. We are entirely in agreement with you that the direct reading accelerometer appears to be the most feasible method of measuring car riding qualities. We are considering that at some future date we should like to have an instrument of the Seismograph type which would measure only car displacements - (no attempts would be made to read accelerations from the curves obtained). This would obviate the present difficulty prevalent with the Seismograph, i.e. the phenomenal paper speed which has to be employed if accelerations are to be obtained from the curves with any degree of accuracy. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/W. A.{Mr Adams} Robotham. | ||