Correspondence dated 21 March 1955

Summary

An item from the surviving correspondence of William John Sands.

Historical context

This item forms part of the surviving William John Sands correspondence and is dated 21 March 1955. It is preserved in the William John Sands Family Archive as evidence of Sands’s professional work and relationships. The accompanying transcript was produced by machine OCR and should be checked against the original scan before being treated as a definitive reading.

Catalogue description

Original correspondence scan imported from the Sands and Ferguson family archive. Source file: 19550321.pdf.

Machine transcript — unreviewed

[Page 1] "Myrtlefiela" Hillsborough 01d Road, LISBURN , : “Y* 21st March, 1955, Dear Mr. Ferguson, Many thanks for your letter of the 10th March and the interesting notes therein. Seat Controlled Switeh, I know that s:fety in has always been one of great thoughts. A seat controlled with the usual dashboard key resisting) would be necessary, vehicle operation importance in your switch in combination switech(which is thief I would go a bit further and suggest you should combine a bonnet operated switch connected electrically in parallel with the seat switch to be able to run the engine when the driver is out of his seat and has the bonnet lifted. A further combination would be to make the electric starter and choke automatically controlled by the dashboard switch, In order to make the saterting foolproof in all weathers a real automatic choke or the equivalent would be necessary which will provide the correct mixture strength with either a hot or cold engine. This would bring the number of operstions necessary to start the engine to one, of course, after the starting key has been used to open the locked car door, I do not think a door operated switeh is the answer to this safety problem as some drivers might not use the door on that side but might get out on the near side to avoid cher traffic. Automatic transmission This will provide the greatest safety factor in car handling particulerly if the small lever you mention could be made to alter the characteristics of the converter in adiition to providing forward, neutral, and reverse. Of course, it will be necessary to make the small control lever operate some form of pawl or detent in order to prevent creep in neutral, this is very important, otherwise you would be going back to,the old Model T days. If you have the answer to this automatic transmission ppoblem without too great a drop in efficienoy in the lower ratios then you have got what all manufacturers desire most. [Page 2] (2) EXPERIMENTS, As I told you the last time I as speakin thet I was conducting some excexinente cn pact 1% converters of the inertia or centrifugal form without the undesirable free-wheels or ratchets which are not durable or silent. I have now got a construction which gives a stalled torque of del, is silent and pulseless as a fluid flywheel without freewheels, ratchets or equivalent. This has only been made up in approximately quarter scale and to make sure that friction was not fooling me I fitted ball bearings all over, it is rather soon to say what results I will get with the full size job which I hope to test in the next few weeks, if suecessful I will let you know the result. IT am enclosing a page from Motor Cycling describing the little Mesreernchnittsa which has single key startire in either direction, of course there is no mention of automatic choke. It is interesting to note that Messerschmitt and Heinkel sre making Baby cars. I hope these few criticisms and comments are of interest to you. Give my kind regards to Mrs. Ferguson and Betty as I used to call her. Yours sincerely,