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).
Battery overcharging, dynamo output curves, and the potential use of a green lamp charge indicator.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\T\2January1929-June1929\ Scan097 | |
| Date | 1st February 1929 guessed | |
| -2- Contd. Presumably owing to better batteries we have not latterly had so many complaints of overcharging with the undesirable effect that would result therefrom, and we can say that there appears to be considerable satisfaction generally. The few complaints we have had recently are those of insufficient output at high speeds. These have been met with higher output machines. We are still of the opinion that our present standard output curves are the best compromise, or at most curves whose peak output is only one ampere higher, and we should regard any change from this as in the nature of an experiment. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, the quality of batteries being now so good necessitates such protracted experiment-ation on these lines (batteries may now last for 4 or 5 years on cars, even when the dynamo output is excessive) that it is scarcely practicable to do more than arrive by judgement at the most suitable output curve at any stage. We are of the opinion, however, that the use of the green lamp charge indicator should enable the output satisfactorly to be increased to the point suggested of half way between present standard and the higher output curve. That means to say that we should not regard the adoption of such a compromise in itself as experimental, but that it would depend only upon the satisfactory experimental proof of the suitable general working of the green lamp indicator, a proof which will take a much shorter time than was indicated Contd. | ||