Correspondence dated 31 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 31 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: 19550331a.jpg.

Machine transcript — unreviewed

Varry Ferpuson Reéscarch a) : : (CONTINUATION SHEET No. 9 e about 10 cwts. That was something with the size of engine that it had! One of the outstanding things about our own transmission is its efficiency at, say, 2: 1. Borg-Warner, at this ratio, is about 17% efficient. That is why they have to use a positive clutch to lock things up. At 2: 1 we are 68% efficient and we hope to beat that before we are through. Over the past three years we have made road tests - a combination of London traffic and country driving - and, in all cases, whatever car we have used uses just a little less petrol than the ordinary gearbox. It isn't much, only about 1 mile to a gallon benefit in a 30 miles per gallon car, but we are on the right side and the handling of the transmission is an absolute joy. T have had some Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars with their transmission with a driver. I would rather have the old gearbox because a decent driver will not make a jerk changing up or down whereas the Rolls hydraulic transmission does. If I were to drive myself I would use the hydraulic transmission because of the nuisance of gear-changing, even on one of those high-powered cars with a very flexible engine. Everything is wrong with the principle of these transmissions commercially inasmuch as they are of no use to the multitude who need them most - the poor fellows with small, low-powered cars. 1 do hope we shall reverse that. There isn't the slightest jerk, up or down, no matter how one drives with our transmission. All that refers to the converter itself which has been perfect for a number of years. That has not been bothering us, but our problem has been, and now is, getting in reverse and trying to eliminate the need for an emergency low gear. Gosh! I wish it were a motor-cycle., We would be about 100% perfect for that! EXPERIMENTS Despite all I have said, I am, indeed, keenly interested in the work that you are doing. The figures of the stalled torque of 5 : 1 are reatly interesting. You do not mention efficiency but I would, naturally, assume this to be high.