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).
The design and performance of a battery ignition distributor, comparing it to Delco schemes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 37\1\ scan 033 | |
| Date | 30th May 1918 | |
| To EFC. from R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to CJ. X.3199 30th May. 1918. R18/G30.5.18. X 3173 RE BATTERY IGNITION. X.3129 X.800. X.3173. X.3296 X.3199. X.1520. X.2814 On the distributor sent on 49-GB. I can see a slight sign of the secondary spark on the segment, which seems to occur just about one-eighth from the beginning end of the segment. I am pleased you have been able to arrange this type of distributor in accordance with my suggestion, so that it is with reasonable care, impossible to get a pre-ignition in the engine. This is very satisfactory, because it is so much simpler than the best known schemes, namely, that of the Delco Co., which we understand is not entirely proof against such a danger. It will be noticed that a wipe contact distributor would be far more difficult to arrange satisfactory, in the same way, on the principle, but if it were of sufficient diameter, in accordance with the number of cylinders, it could have a trailing brush in contact with a main brush, so that in the event of it firing on the make instead of the break, by running backwards, it would occur in a cylinder already past the centre. This scheme demands that the distributor shall be advanced with the contact maker. I have some doubt as to whether this is done in the Delco "Liberty" design, it seems awkward, unless one uses an advance on the drive, owing to the large numbers of loose wires it necessitates. Contd. | ||