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).
Page from 'The Autocar' magazine featuring a collection of short articles and anecdotes titled 'Disconnected Jottings'.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\1\ img090 | |
| Date | 20th September 1940 | |
| 290 The Autocar September 20th, 1940. “MEN OF LIMITED INTELLIGENCE GENERALLY CONDEMN EVERY” DISCONNECTED JOTTINGS Sweethearts and Wives, Please Note AFTER the last war many young automobile engineers started inventing and designing all sorts of things which had been invented and designed years before. While they had been away in uniform they had had other things to think about than tappets and two-strokes and had completely lost touch with car design. One of the objects of The Autocar to-day is to refresh the minds of all students of automobile design, not only by recording new developments but by reviewing the past as it affects the present. But the young engineers who will be chiefly responsible for the cars of the future have other things to do just now than to take a refresher course in Automobile Engineering. We know that a lot of them do read The Autocar and find it interesting, but we can’t expect them to retain in their memory all the little things that may be of importance to them later on. Now here is a suggestion to their mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts. They will be doing their loved ones a distinct service by taking The Autocar every week and putting it on one side for them to read on their return to civil life. Had it not been for the last war I should not have thought of this, for that unpleasantness revealed how quickly young engineers forget. Many had the forethought to arrange for both The Motor Cycle and The Autocar to be delivered for them and their letters of appreciation after the war ended showed how much their stored copies had helped them. Geology THERE is a great deal of interest in knowing something about what you see when wandering about the countryside. Why is one part of the country so different from another which may be only a mile or so away? Properly to understand it one needs to study geology, but it is such a big subject that one hesitates about going into it. For the benefit of people who desire an outline of the subject, Mr. I. O.{Mr Oldham} Evans has written a book called “Geology By the Wayside,” which Thomas Murby published last week at the popular price of 3s. 6d. It explains many things which have mystified me. In my case of curios at home I have a box of sea shells dug up within a mile or two of Coventry. In driving so many times between London and the coast I have often wondered why the North Downs are so different from the South Downs. I have always thought the questions, “How deep is the ocean and how high is the sky?” far less interesting than “How old is the world?” This book tells me that it is more than 500,000,000 years since the dawn of life, and that the age of man is less (how much less is not clear) than 100,000,000 years. Few of us can realise what a hundred million means in spite of war budgets and war savings. Yes, it’s an interesting subject even in these days when nothing seems to matter except the job of beating Hitler and his gang. [Image of a dog looking out of a car window] Good Companion No. 212, Shiela, a Scottie who thinks motoring a great recreation to share with her partner in an Austin Eight, Mr. John Ritchie, of Paisley. [Image of a cartoon airplane] The designers of the motor car of the immediate future are now in uniform and reading The Autocar when they can, but in order that they may be “in touch” when they return to civil life, their sweethearts, wives or mothers should take The Autocar every week to be put aside ready for them to study when the present unpleasantness is over. Invalid OUR cheery friend Stanley Parker, governing director of Parkers, of Manchester and Bolton, is not so cheery of late. He has been laid up for several months with heart trouble, but I am glad to say he is slowly recovering. At the moment he is recuperating in the Isle of Anglesey. Sez Who? A FRIEND who gives most of his spare time to the A.R.P. was called out recently by the howl of the siren. He had not driven far before he was stopped by a warden and politely informed that he must drive without his lights, and not half a mile further on he was stopped again, this time by a policeman, who took his name and address and warned him that he would be reported for driving without lights. My friend is a reasonable man, so he said nothing, but just reported the matter to his chief officer. It will be interesting see what happens. Bursting With Indignation ONE of the strange things about this bombing business is that the bombs very often hit the garage of a house and not the house itself. This is explained by the fact that a falling bomb may be deflected on to the roof of a garage on striking the side walls of the house. An extraordinary point about these hits is that except in the case of fire breaking out, which from a high explosive bomb is not so often as you might think, the car escapes with very little damage, with the exception of a few scratches and dents to the bodywork, but in a large number of cases the tyres have burst—a result, I suppose, of the blast. Such Excitement ! CERTAIN sections of the motoring public in the country districts are behaving really very badly after air raids. Immediately they hear a bomb drop in the neighbourhood or see from the back door an aeroplane fall from the skies, they jump into their cars and chase after it, completely disregarding all speed limits and rules of the roads. They arrive at the “incident” in all manner of clothes, from just plain pyjamas to elaborate siren suits, very often minutes ahead of A.R.P. organisations and park their cars completely without regard to the fact that they are hindering the work of rescue and fire fighting. An A.R.P. official was very bitter in his remarks to me. “It wouldn’t be so bad if they offered to help—but they don’t; they merely stand and gape—getting a thrill out of watching poor injured people, whose homes have been wrecked, searching among the ruins for relatives and treasured belongings. Cars are parked on hydrants and they are then left immobilised.” (Incidentally, Junior, who is in the A.F.S., has seen a car which was parked on a hydrant turned on its side and left “slightly damaged.” They search | ||