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 dealer William Arnold to Bentley Motors Ltd. complaining about the impracticality of a new type of jack supplied with a chassis.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 139\2\ scan0381 | |
| Date | 13th November 1935 guessed | |
| COPY William Arnold Upper Brook Street, Manchester, 13. Messrs. Bentley Motors Ltd., 16 Conduit Street, W.1. Dear Sirs, Re Chassis No. B.4.FB. We thank you for your letter of the 4th inst. and are pleased to inform you that the new type of jack arrived this morning. We immediately made the same test as we had done previously, namely, to remove the tyre from the offside rear wheel, and to allow the wheel rim to rest on the level floor of our Works. In this position it was impossible to remove the jack, in fact it was necessary to pack up the wheel 1 1/4" before it could be removed. We are sure on giving this matter careful thought you will agree that it is not the type of jack which should be supplied with such a chassis. We think that it would be impossible for say a lady driver, to manipulate such a jack to allow her to fit a wheel on the road, because in addition to the fact that it would be impossible to get the jack in position with the tyre flat, the working of the jack itself is certainly not a job for a lady. Again it being necessary to hold the jack handle in position, we should have thought a revolving grip handle might have been fitted. We hope you will not mind this further rather lengthy letter, but we cannot help but suggest that you have not put the jack under the necessary test, and after we had made our own test in our own Works under nice clean conditions, we hesitate to think what a job it would be to carry out a change of wheel under the usual road conditions. Yours faithfully For WILLIAM ARNOLD (Sd) F.Parker Sales Manager. | ||