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).
Difficulty owners have in keeping batteries charged for 40/50 HP and 20 HP chassis models.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 47\4\ Scan046 | |
| Date | 30th November 1925 | |
| S/W. HL/ED{J. L. Edwards}/30.11.25. Hm.{Capt. W. Hallam - Head Repairs} from H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} BATTERIES & DYNAMOS 40/50 HP & 20 HP.CHASSIS. Replying to your hm{Capt. W. Hallam - Head Repairs}/NRC{N. R. Chandler}9/EW251125 there is doubt whether owners are easily able to keep their batteries fully charged. To appreciate the conditions you have to divide the 40/50 HP. cars into Silver Ghost and New PhantomCodename for PHANTOM I types. Taking first of all Silver Ghosts I think certainly there is a difficulty for drivers using their cars almost exclusively in town, to keep the batteries charged. They have little opportunity, unless they get a week-end run, of doing any charging and their week-end run, as likely as not, will be merely to golf club and back, possibly 30 or 40 miles each way. With New PhantomCodename for PHANTOM I type cars, we have not yet enough experience amongst the delivered cars to say anything, but I anticipate that as the charging speed is so much lower, we should have less of the trouble experienced by town users of the Silver Ghost type. Taking now the 20 HP. I can call to mind a few cases where the cars, having been used all the week in town, are dependent also on a week-end run for a good charge. Unfortunately the dynamo output at speed on the open road does not enable this charge to be given and I have heard it suggested that the charging speed in the 20 HP. should be lowered, so that some charging can be done on ordinary town work. I think it is gradually being appreciated by owners and drivers that the life of a battery is a very brief one, and my impression in consequence is that owners turn more readily to the battery makers for repairs and renewals than to us, realising possibly that all we shall do is to obtain for them a report on the battery from the makers. I am forwarding your memo to Mr. Bowring at the Instruction Class, calling his attention to battery matters generally, and asking him to concentrate on the attention to dynamo brushes, battery connections and care of batteries generally. Contd. | ||