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 standardization and ordering of materials for the side lever mechanism.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 67\4\ scan0007 | |
| Date | 15th February 1926 | |
| Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}: W/S 484303 BYL/H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} 15.2.26. SIDE LEVER MECHANISM. ------------------- In reply to C/Hn{F. C. Honeyman - Retail orders}5/MH.{M. Huckerby}12.2.26. and further to BY12/H.8.2.26. and dealing first of all with the last paragraph, as this is the most important one since we have actually ordered the material, the position is that the material at the moment is already standardized and was standardized on the strength of designs having been produced and run in France and submitted to Sales. There is therefore no reason why this matter should be submitted to the Administration before ordering material. We are given to understand that a part of the program when such things as side lever mechanism and steering columns are altered is the submission of a car showing these modified features to Sales, and this has actually been done in this case, whilst of course the other side of the question is that a Standardization Sheet should not be signed up so long as any point about the matter is in dispute, as the Standardization Sheet is my justification for ordering material, and having received a Standardization Sheet signed up it is my duty, and one that I am supposed to look after very carefully, to see that at the earliest possible date from the standardization of the part it is brought into service. I was not aware that there was any question about the length of the side levers. So far as I understood the matter we have been regularly pressed by Sales to shorten them more and more, and it certainly never occurred to me that shortening the side levers was likely to raise any difficulty, as this has been a point which has been pressed upon us step after step for a long time, every change on the side levers having resulted in same being shortened, and never once have we lengthened them over a period of some twelve or fourteen years. I wish to confirm the fact that having received a Standardization Sheet fully signed up for the new type side levers and gear box, we have introduced the changes in the next series, for which material is actually being ordered at the moment, and concerning which we cannot permit any delay. Finally, I must emphasize the fact that if there is any question about Sales not being in agreement with a proposal, they must not sign a standardization sheet, as once this is signed, it represents my authority for going ahead, and with a standardization Con. | ||