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There were four systems, Dave. 1) The basic. A magneto and a crank. No generator, no lights, no battery. 2) Option 1. A magneto and a crank for the engine. For lights, Bosch made a system with a generator to to run lights, but no battery so the lights would only burn while the engine was running. Never saw one with it, but I'd expect the lights went up and down to some degree with engine speed, like on a car with a bad battery running off the alternator. 3a) Generator, battery, starter (crank cleverly concealed as a backup), lights and magneto. Battery was to turn the starter and level the current to the lights They (the lights) ran off the battery, not off the genny as in the Bosch system, and as long as everything wa in good order, wouldn't flicker or flare and dim as much. Engine ignition was still from the mag and completely isolated from the battery and charging system. 3b) Generator, battery, starter (still a backup crank) lights and battery/coil ignition. Difference from 3a is that the ignition is now a part of and therefore dependent on the same electrical sysem that runs everything else. I may be a little screwed up on the particulars of this, but I my understanding of the concept is that the coil in a battery ignition is actually two coils, one inside the other. They are wound at sufficiently different rates that they are magnetically/electrically different. It is the difference, when released (think back to our discussion of how the charge dumps when your points open) that makes the spark that winds up at the spark plug. If the inside of the two coils were on a spindle, you'd have a motor that would transfer/release the energy by turning the spindle instead of releasing a spark. A magneto works similarly, except that instead of two coils, it has a permanent magnet in place of the outside coil, and the turning of the magneto excites a smaller coil inside the magnet. Same effect except the magnetism comes from the permanent magnet rather than a magnetic field created by the outer coil on the battery system. Where I'm off base, I'll happily be corrected and grateful for the learning experience. I learned some, too, on this whole thread. I hadn't given any thought to the potential for a stronger spark possible with the voltage/amperage off a battery vs. the mag. Nor to the improved spark timing from the centrifugal advance on the battery distributor. I'm actually kind of curious now whether the function of the impulse coupler prohibits a better spark advance system on the mag, or if the engineers just moved on to something better.
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