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 The Rover Company's Assistant Chief Engineer discussing gearbox noise issues, comparing the Morris 8 and Bentley gearboxes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 127\2\ scan0183 | |
| Date | 28th June 1941 | |
| Handwritten top left: Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} for File Handwritten top center: 109/ THE ROVER COMPANY LTD TELEGRAMS: ROVER COVENTRY Meteor, Clitheroe. NEW METEOR WORKS WATERLOO MILL, COVENTRY CLITHEROE, LANCS. TELEPHONE Nº 88081. Clitheroe 566. YOUR REF. Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}4/ET. OUR REF. WRB/GC. Handwritten note over date: E.N.? Please note. [signature] W. A.{Mr Adams} Robotham, Esq., Messrs. Rolls-Royce, Ltd., DERBY. 28th June, 1941. Dear Robotham, I very much doubt whether I can be of any help, on your gear box problem. It is very seldom that the solution to a problem which is solved by just "knowing how", can be passed on to anyone else. The Morris 8 gear box was designed about 7 years ago, and possessed almost every fault imaginable. These troubles were eliminated one by one, under the guidance of two engineers, (Tom Brown, now Chief Engineer, and myself, one time Chief Engineer) and a multitude of production engineers, pseudo engineers, and people who were too honest to call themselves engineers. Most of the work on gear noise was done by the production people, under Mr. Harriman, who, I believe, is general Works Manager. It might be worth your while to get in touch with him, or with Tom Brown, but I very much doubt whether you will get any sense out of them. I don't suppose they will have much idea how the trick was done. I'm sure that if I were still with the Company, I should have very little idea myself. Are you sure that you are making a fair comparison? The Bentley box will handle about 5 times as much power, will be about 5 times as big, and might reasonably be expected to make 5 times as much noise, assuming that it was equally well made. As the Bentley certainly makes less general noise than the Morris, ratio of box noise to general noise might be about 10 to 1 in favour of the Morris. This does not seem a particularly desirable goal to aim at. I am not sure that this reasoning is sound, because it suggests that it is easier to make small cars quiet, than to do the same with big cars. Many thanks for your good wishes for the job we are working on. Yours sincerely, [Signature] W. R.{Sir Henry Royce} BOYLE, ASSISTANT CHIEF ENGINEER. | ||