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 to S. Smith & Sons regarding the superior performance and lower cost of a competitor's speedometer.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 165\2\ img037 | |
| Date | 3rd March 1937 | |
| 6051 3rd. March 1937. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Wst.10/AP. Messrs S.Smith & Sons (Motor Accessories) Ltd., Cricklewood Works, LONDON N.W.2. For the attention of C.W. Nichols Esq. Dear Nichols, I have received your letter of the 2nd. inst. and am very pleased to know that you are at last making the A.T. Company cost conscious. My observations on the A.T. are based more particularly as a result of an examination of the speedometers which we are now testing, supplied to us by another well-known firm whom you know so well as your competitors in this country. I submit that their instrument is really superior to the Smith and we feel as good, from the point of view of performance, as the A.T. but at a very much reduced cost. Naturally, we are testing these instruments exhaustively before arriving at any conclusions in the matter, but we want to warn you that these tests are in progress, and thus give you a chance to compete still further with them in view of the excellent relations existing between our two Companies. My own view is that the A.T. Company will not be able to compete with these instruments, or the Smith standard instrument unless they adopt a more fundamental method of construction and assembly. If you are in Derby at any time in the near future I could talk to you and explain the matter more freely. Yours sincerely, | ||