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 issues found with the Barker dipping headlamps on a trials car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 61a\1\ scan0406 | |
| Date | 21th November 1928 | |
| BJ. SG.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} from R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} 46555 R1/M21.11.28. BARKER TRIALS CAR. X.8950 X.4555 Regarding the above car, which came here with Mr. Sudgreaves and Mr. Fuller recently, the Barker dipping headlamps were particularly noticeable in the following ways: (1) The mechanism, including the operating levers, seemed extraordinarily heavy. (2) It was extremely complicated, the design of the pieces being such as to give a great number of corners, projections, etc. the result of this being, since the whole gear was plated, to make it impossible to keep clean. It was noticeable that the lamps were kept bright, but the dipping gear was in many places much discoloured. (3) There is too much mechanism in the gear that it is necessary to oil it to make it work: the oil does not look appropriate on this part of the car. (4) There was a great deal of slack in all the mechanism, the lamps rattled badly when struck. (5) The operating lever was as usual very heavy to push. It had a large knurled head, the original purpose of which we believe was to give the twisting. This was evidently been found too much, and the twisting was done in this case by a separate lever attached to the steering column. This lever was also somewhat hard to work, and being mounted on a shaft overhanging its bearing by 6" to 8", the bearing itself being already slack, it appeared to be very liable to rattle. This confirms my earlier observations, and the impression of our expert drivers, that this mechanism is too crude and heavy to work, and consequently is practically useless except for increasing the weight of the car. This is another instance why we ought to fit all our standard details on the chassis at an inclusive price, the first reason being that the customer gets well tried and approved mechanism, the second reason being that the customer is not liable to be overcharged and have unnecessary gadgets fitted to the car, which cannot improve either its reliability, or performance. Our great object is to make our buyers and users of RR. cars pleased and satisfied people. I understand we cannot do much in this case, but it is worthy of notice how difficult it is to get buyers of RR. cars well served. R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||