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).
Outlining issues and potential improvements for a Smith's car heater.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 137\3\ scan0244 | |
| Date | 8th July 1940 | |
| Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Col.1/ML.8.7.40. SMITH'S CAR HEATERS. The latest type of heater unit as supplied to us by Smith's has not yet been tried. Although this unit is of the fresh air type it is fundamentally the same as the 'Hadees' heater we should like to make the following comments :- 1. The electric motor is mounted on the heater and consequently increases the noise intensity. 2. Mounting the motor on the heater makes it necessary to have the heater further away from the dashboard and so causes the unit to take up much room. 3. There is no way of having only the de-mister working without the heater. In summer this is very undesirable. 4. The hot air expelled at the back of the heater impinges directly on to the carpet which absorbs a certain amount of the heat, resulting in the effective delivery of heat to the rest of the car being small. 5. The supply of air for de-misting purposes appears ample. 6. Erection of the heater on the car is a simple and straightforward matter. With the fittings supplied with the latest heaters is one for controlling the supply of hot water to the heater matrix from the instrument panel. We do not consider this to be necessary especially in a re-circulating system where the heat output can be controlled by the fan speed. We are also desirous of having some control whereby the heat can be supplied either to the car or to the de-mister nozzles in which case the introduction of a third control knob for the water would make operation of the heater unit rather complicated. Owing to the need for heaters fitted to our cars to operate with the minimum amount of noise we consider it necessary to eliminate electric motor noise by mounting the motor on the engine side of the dashboard. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Col. | ||