I’m still freshly back from Goodwood, and there’s still so much stuff to go through, and, knowing me, I’ll likely forget things or come back to them months later. I’ve accepted that. But at this moment, there’s plenty of things that are still nice and fresh, cutting-edge, breaking news kind of things about car that are barely a century old! Barely!
One particular detail is something I spotted on the dashboard of a Rolls-Royce Phantom, I think a Phantom I from around 1925 or so? This particular control caught my eye because it’s a large, prominent switch that was clearly labeled, and labeled with words that, while familiar, when combined were not something I was familiar with.
Here, this is what I’m talking about:
I’m not talking about the big switch over on the right, which took me a while to figure out just what the hell it was – it’s a light switch! The “S &T” and “H, S & T,” both with their fussy little trailing periods, stand for “side and tail” and “head, side, and tail” respectively, referring to which sets of lights you want to turn on.
That feels a lot more needlessly obtuse than just a little two-step pull knob with an icon of a headlight on it, but hey, this is old and for fancy people who appreciate ampersands and other punctuation.
No, the switch I’m talking about is this one:
“Starting carburetter,” using the British spelling of carburetor with their extra “T’ and lack of “O.” I’ve never really encountered the idea of what seems to be a separate carburetor just for starting a car, though I imagine it’s something like what a choke does on a normal carb setup – providing a more rich fuel-air mixture to get the car started.
That does seem to be what’s going on here – in typical Rolls-Royce overdoing it fashion, a simple choke wasn’t enough, and there’s a whole separate carb just to get things started. This is what the starting carb looks like:
Much simpler than the full downdraft Stromberg carb these things tended to use, but still vastly more complex than just a choke valve on a carb.
From what I can glean from these forum posts, the starting carb may have its own independent fuel lines? I’m not entirely sure, but what I am sure of is that starting one of these old Rolls-Royces is a shockingly complicated enterprise.
Here, check this starting procedure out, on a US-built “Springfield” Phantom 1:
Holy crap. I think I’d just start mine at the beginning of the week and leave it running until the Lord’s Day Of Rest, or something. Here’s another video, showing the use of the starting carb specifically:
This starting carb switch is a spring-loaded one, so you don’t accidentally leave it on, which, according to those forums, is bad, and leads to sootiness, which is an indication of a sooty soul and poor character.
I’m also a little confused about the hand throttle vs the foot throttle, the normal accelerator pedal. Are they the same thing, just the hand one is able to stay at a given setting?
Also, while I love driving a manual car and am fine with a manual choke, I think I’m fine with not having to manually adjust my ignition timing or fuel mixture.
What’s really interesting, I think, is just how complex this all was, especially on a luxury car. Things changed quite rapidly from here, and starting most cars by the 1930s was vastly easier. I’ve driven economy cars from around the same time, like a 1926 Hanomag 2/10, and starting them wasn’t much different than starting a modern car – key, starter, some throttle, and that’s it. That feels much more “luxurious” than the dismantling-a-bomb level of complexity of starting one of these Rollers, but maybe the concept of luxury was different then, and less focused on ease.
Besides, most Rolls owners probably had a chauffeur to do this crap; making it more complex just meant they were getting their money’s worth.
Drive a tractor, even in year 2000+ they had hand throttle. PTO is engine rpm related so use of implements is hand throttle territory as 2,600rpm for 8hrs was semi normal for me. A bit much for a foot throttle.
That’s a great starting procedure but it’s not Field Marshall good…
https://youtu.be/rsrQJELitxQ?si=A54JjPjwCJofTsv2
Give me a car you can start with a lighter, a hammer and a shotgun cartridge
Grandmother was given a new RR about 100 years ago.
Being non mechanically minded was not her strong suit.
So the chauffeur was responsible for getting her RR started for her.
She would just leave it running until she returned home.
Some SU equipped vehicles in the 50s and 60s (like Jaguars) had similar setups formally known as auxiliary enrichment devices that were either thermostatic or manually operated. Would provide automatically differing degrees of mixture enrichment at starting, idling, cruising, and full throttle conditions when the engine has not attained normal running temperature.
Having spent time time around really old cars like this, I suspect that while the choke existed, it might not have worked all that well with the carburetors of the day. All the more so on the massive 7.5 liter I6 in the Rolls.
Evolutionary side node: The “fifth injector” used on Bosch K-Jetronic engines for cold start, a small injector fitted to the intake manifold.
The manual choke lever plate on my early production 240Z had a blank slot for a hand throttle. Not sure if they had them in other markets or were planned and abandoned.
Some autojournalist needs to take a Model T driving class, just to learn about the evolutionary dead ends inherent in building a car for people who don’t know what a car is yet.
OMG! I want to do that! I wonder if there is such a thing on the East Coast… Well, I guess I’m off to the library to check out some phone books from the reference desk.
If you can make it to Hershey, PA, looks like the AACA Museum has you covered. I really recommend it.
It really is astonishing how much driving a model T is not like driving a modern car. The steering wheel turns left and right. That’s about it.
I’ve been messing about with an old fire truck recently, a 1924 Graham Brothers. It has a floor throttle, a throttle on the steering wheel, and a third throttle next to the radiator so that you can control the revolutions and maintain pressure in the pump that’s attached to the engine. This is all accomplished with a linkage system under the hood. There is also a timing control lever on the steering wheel, and I t’s very easy to get that confused with the steering wheel throttle.
My friend’s dad had a Land Rover with a hand throttle on the dash as well as a normal accelerator pedal. Presumably this was for agricultural use (eg in conjunction with the PTO), but it also acted as a crude cruise control.
What I’ve never been able to work out though, is how do both throttles interact?
eg, if you engage the hand throttle, does the foot pedal stop working? If you’re ticking over on the hand lever, and then stomp on the pedal, what happens?
They are somewhat independent, if you stomp the foot accelerator it accelerates as normal, but only returns to the RPM setting of the hand throttle. And it’s OK as a cruise control, except it can’t compensate for changes in the road, up and down hills.
Thank you! That’s been bugging me off-and-on for about twenty years!
Fascinating! Thanks for that educational and entertaining piece, Torch.
I’m not knowledgeable about these cars, but I imagine the hand throttle is probably analogous to the idle speed screw on a more modern carburetor. So you can set the idle between slow and fast, but the foot pedal controls the throttle cable to allow higher speeds. Someone more knowledgable might need to correct this perception.
That’s the setup on my tractor. Hand throttle makes warmup easier, lets you keep a steady RPM when bumping over rough terrain, and set a consistent power output for implements.
When I took Model T Driving School, I was surprised at how agricultural they were to operate, until I realized who they expected to operate and service them.
I like that the screw slots are all horizontal.
Interesting. I used to install cabinet and door hardware in the homes of the folks who would buy the modern version of this car. We always oriented the slots to vertical.
I was always taught that finish or trim screws must be either horizontal or vertical but, importantly, must match one another anywhere they can be seen together.
“[F]or fancy people who appreciate ampersands and other punctuation”
In this case, these people don’t seem to have been in the Oxford comma camp.
Speaking of commas, this statement “The “S &T” and “H, S & T,” both with their fussy little trailing periods” should have a period in place of the comma after the H. It looks like they just crammed a simple period in between the closely spaced H and S (yeah, talk about bad kerning!) Yeah, as a pedantic former English major (& former graphic design intern) sometimes riding in or even just looking at old cars, especially pre-war cars, can make my eye twitch.
“This starting carb switch is a spring-loaded one, so you don’t accidentally leave it on, which […] is bad, and leads to sootiness, which is an indication of a sooty soul and poor character.”
As it’s early morning & I’m still drinking my morning coffee I initially read that as “snootiness” and “a snooty soul” which made me chuckle quite sensibly. Then I re-read it and saw that it was actually “sootiness” and “a sooty soul” which also made me chuckle, if perhaps just slightly less sensibly though a sooty soul is indeed very much a horse of a different color from a snooty soul.
I’ve been married for a long time, so I don’t expect to enter the dating pool anytime soon. But if I do, I swear I’m doing an Oxford comma joke in my profile. Something like “my passions are <insert something>, <insert something else> and a fanatical devotion to using the Oxford comma.” and see who gets it. Whoever gets it and laughs has a much higher probability of being my kind of lady.
On a practical level I am firmly in the Oxford comma camp.
Owner: [lifts bonnet, turns on fuel, walks around and gets in drivers seat, feels under dash to find elusive switch, turns on power, switches dial to ignition, switches throttle lever to the right place, moves choke lever to the right place, moves timing level to just the right place, turns on starting carburetor, rechecks that everything was done right, maneuvers foot to feel for elusive start button on floor and pushes it]
Rolls Royce: Thanks, but actually I think I just want to read my book and go to sleep.
Owner: Gets up, has a few gin and tonics, gives Bentley a booty call.
“the dismantling-a-bomb level of complexity”
They’re not complex at all! Every bomb comes equipped with an easily activated self dismantling feature.
Like Elon’s rockets?
Like all rockets.
And deities save from the kerning.
The Carburetter plate is a proper piece. The lighting plate looks like it was banged out in five minutes by some guy from the engine shop who got access to the tool shop and the letter punches.
Separate engine speed controls are common on any commercial truck that has a PTO to drive things mounted to the vehicle.
On old, mechanical injection trucks, it was a two-part mechanical control. You could pull the knob out and lock it in various positions, or you could rotate the knob to give fine adjustment. It also works as cruise control if you’re OK barreling down the highway with the throttle locked in a position.
So to recap, pulling on and rotating your knob was the default way to get your motor running until electronics made it a push-button affair.
“Hey babe, you want a side and tail? Or a head, side and tail…..”
The late Alan Clark in his diaries once complained that he could not understand people who did not like going through the 12 necessary steps to start his old Bentley.
With a crank, obviously.
Stop the mucking about Jeeves and do get on with it!
My strumpet’s crumpet is cooling off at an alarming rate!
If you don’t pump it my strumpet will tell me to lump it!
Something seriously inconvenient must be going on electrically with these beasts in stock form. Why else would one tolerate a blue diode and a chinese MP3 chime when you turn it on?
Definitely after market. Think the original was a simple master switch.
My guess is that he left the battery switch on too many times and that was his solution.
I think the owners fell into two categories: people with chauffeurs, and disheveled eccentrics who despite their wealth loved to tinker with things and would revel in mastering this process.
I think a certain segment of the population who now sees complexity like this as a kind of luxury.
Like audio snobs who listen to vinyl records still. Records are more expensive, harder to use, and sound worse than an iPhone with Spotify (come at me, audiophiles).
Or people who like to make their all their food from scratch. I make my own pesto from scratch using basil from my garden. At least in this case, the outcome is better than a packaged sauce.
I think for a lot of people old world quality trumps new modern convenience. I want a walnut dashboard with actual, dimly-lit dials, not a giant screen and some nightclub lighting.
“come at me, audiophiles”
They would but they tend to get tripped up by the rats nest of $200/ft solid silver speaker cables.
You Monster!
Silver and gold…..silver and gold…..
Yeah. Using Litz wire for audio frequencies. :eyeroll: And $400 wooden volume knobs.
All of which is doubly a shame since there can be a difference between audio circuitry, but these products exploit non-functional false traits.
I have a SoundShark. It really brings out the notes above 22k Hz
: )
I assume it attaches to the unused speaker terminals. With banana plugs.
No plugs or terminals. Wireless AM.
That’s brilliant! Avoiding all physical contact that might degrade the harmonic resonance optimization. And zero inductive latency.
It works even better if you reverse the polarity
I dunno, such drastic measures best for if you’ve already run out of self-sealing stem bolts and burnt out your hot-grid pentode jeffries tubes in your encablulator.
“Or people who like to make their all their food from scratch. I make my own pesto from scratch using basil from my garden. At least in this case, the outcome is better than a packaged sauce”
I do to but thanks to the pinon nuts DIY is rarely cost effective. Mostly I use it as a way to save the bounty of end of season basil.
(Honestly the pesto I get at Dollar Tree – when I can find it – for a buck twenty five isn’t that far off homemade.)
I found a recipe called “garbage pesto” that I based mine from. Basically, any leafy green and any nut. Spinach and walnut tastes pretty decent. I get whatever nut is BOGO. Sometimes pine nuts even.
Sounds good. I like finding ways to use “garbage” as food too. Not much of even whole, store bought chickens leaves by way of the trashcan, the garbage disposal or the compost bin in this household.
Major crossover with wristwatch fetishists.
I love me a good wristwatch, but the more chrome and complications and skeletonized faces and 3-stage knobs and whatnot that you add it it, the WORSE it is at doing the job it SHOULD be doing – informing you of the current time.
I have a Timex Weekender (hour, minute, second) and a smartwatch with an incredibly simple face on it (hour, minute, second, date and temperature with nice, crisp numbers on each hour). These tell time WONDERFULLY.
I have a (knockoff) automatic MontBlanc that… looks quite fancy with the visible workings and the second hand off on its own complication, and a sun/moon thingy in case you don’t know if it’s light or dark out… and… yeah, it looks nice, but I have no idea what time it is without spending about 5 seconds on decoding things.
I’m a minor collector and I don’t get the quartz watch hate. Probably about half my collection are quartz, from mid 90s TAG-Heuer to current Tissot PRX. That being said, I’d never give up my automatics. There’s something about wearing that tiny, complicated mechanism on your wrist that feels pleasantly anachronistic.
Your claim about sound quality of records versus a phone and Spotify is objectively wrong, but there are some qualifiers involving, mostly, speakers (and ears) of adequate quality to hear the difference. Mechanical wristwatch people, as mentioned, are a better analogue, as they tell time objectively less accurately than a cheap quartz watch while also being immensely more expensive and complex.
“Starting carburetter” is just old, fancy, rich British for “choke me, daddy”
That made me laugh
“Besides, most Rolls owners probably had a chauffeur to do this crap; making it more complex just meant they were getting their money’s worth.”
The entire article I was muttering under my breath “it’s not the owner having to deal with this, it’s the chauffeur”. By the time I got to “maybe the concept of luxury was different then, and less focused on ease” I was composing in my head the withering response about the occupants being equally at ease no matter how many cryptic levers and switches the chauffeur was operating like some steampunk pipe organ to keep the magnificent beast moving. But NOOOO, you had to stick that last sentence on there and take the wind right out of my sails.
Wednesdays suck.
As a general rule, if you’re scanning a Torch article for either comedic retorts or obscure details, you’ll find most of them taken. It’s like being in an improv troupe and you find out one of the other guys was on Whose Line is it Anyway. You can’t be mad, but you’re also secretly mad.
I wonder if that chauffeur would have preferred driving a Camry for Uber.
If I learned anything from Downton Abbey (who am I kidding, I learned everything from Downton Abbey) it’s that chauffeurs, when not fomenting Marxist revolution and stealing away the daughters of nobility, took a lot of pride in maintaining and mastering the complicated machines in their charge just like a groom with his horses*. I think that, once the novelty of pushing a button and moving a lever into “D” wore off, a proper chauffeur of the period would hate it.
*Wait, maybe Rolls made their cars this complicated specifically so the chauffeurs would have less time to foment revolution and seduce noble women? Hmmm…
Foment rebellion certainly. Seduce the women…they better know the rules for that:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PxuUkYiaUc8
Fun fact: “chauffeur” basically means “warmer-upper.” That was the core of the job.
COTD.
Typically, the owners of these beasts were not the operators of them. The owners usually sat in the back.
And the chauffeur was typically part-mechanic as well.
My ’29 Chevy isn’t too complex either. Sure, you have a manual choke and a spark advance (since the distributor doesn’t do that on its own), but it’s pretty straightforward:
Key on, choke out, spark retarded, a couple pumps of the accelerator and then stomp the starter button/pedal.