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).
Letter from Waltham Watch Company discussing instrument bearing design and the supply of parts like belts and pulleys.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 36\1\ scan 075 | |
| Date | 10th November 1920 | |
| WALTHAM WATCH COMPANY, LTD. -2- 10/11/20 To:- Messrs. Rolls-Royce Ltd., DERBY --------------------------------------- one being made up in the same way as a plain bearing, and the other being what we call an "endstone". Our registering medium is running directly on this endstone, therefore, getting a friction-less bearing. There is no hole for the staff passing through either endstone. If we fit a hand to this staff, which is quite a simple matter, we should have to drill through this endstone, and the registering cup would be running horizontally on two plain bearings instead of end on one endstone. You will from this explanation see that although we could supply hand and dial reading instruments, we could not guarantee such great accuracy as with our present instrument. In running our instruments, clients have been surprised at the clearness obtained in the reading, as two figures of large dimensions are always visible through the aperture of the dial. If it comes to the matter of a contract, and you are prepared to accept responsibility for this slight inaccuracy, we will put it up to our Works to make you a special instrument, but candidly it will go against the grain in the same way that any proposed innovation on your car would be objected to, even if it were better than any existing car, and not quite to your standard of perfection. We presume your Mr. Hives will be coming to the Show, and if he will call on our Mr. Speight at our Stand No. 492, we have models and parts with which we could demonstrate our arguments, or, our Mr. Speight will be pleased to run up to Derby for this purpose, if you will fix an appointment. 3. We can supply black finish and white figures, such as we supply your London depot, and these from stock. We also have the correct length of cable or flexible shaft you ask for, also the driven pulley for flat belt surface to suit either your 895 x 135 m/m or 895 x 150 m/m tyres. We presume that you require the flat belt pulley above mentioned, and not our "V" type pulleys with the driven pulley which is adjustable, and can be set dead accurate according to the owners particular fad in the matter of air pressure he puts into his tyres. We find that clients vary as much as 20 lbs in the matter of air pressure they run on. If we are favoured with your patronage, we would inform you from the commencement that we would recommend you to have the "V" belt and the adjustable pulley, as the belt is always gripping and never at any time slips. | ||