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).
The quality and testing issues of a specific steel, referencing work by Krupps and Firths.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 154a\1\ scan0081 | |
| Date | 19th June 1928 | |
| - 3 - BY1/G.19.6.28. in fact they are, so far as I can extract the facts from them, disappointed in it, and they are certainly not pressing its claims. They have even within the last month, when I was with Dr. Hatfield of the Brown Firth Laboratories, been very emphatic that we should go slow and make very careful tests before using the steel in any capacity whatever. I am particularly using the Stanton test for comparative purposes because of the element of impact it incorporates which should show up any tendency for skin brittleness, and the further fact that cracks on the skin may pass readily from the brittle skin to the more ductile core. Messrs. Krupps have been handling the steel from early in 1923 or possibly earlier, whilst Messrs. Firths have been working upon it from July 1925. My information has been mostly obtained from actual experiments carried out by Firths on casts produced at their own Works, and the results are from samples taken from a number of such casts. In addition I have had access to a translation of Krupps early experimental work, and their micrographs as well as Firths show apparent incipient cracks on the thin hardened skin, a point which may account for the very slight use made of the steel in the five or six years it has been known to Krupps. BY. {R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} | ||