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).
Blame for the failure of Lucas electrical equipment on cars.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 36\4\ scan 217 | |
| Date | 18th June 1921 | |
| X3014b To CJ. from R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to Wd.{Mr Wood/Mr Whitehead} c. to Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} c. to Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to EFC. X.4165 X.3014b. RE LUCAS ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT. Mr. Whitehead infers that a good deal of blame due to the failure of the Lucas equipment on our cars is due to our technical department not being in touch with Lucas. I cannot believe that any such act on our part can excuse them for their failure. They cannot blame us for the un-reliable working of the accumulator cutout, and the want of reliability in their fuses. Moreover, they cannot blame us for the errors of design in the connections on the dynamo. All of these things have failed on my own car in my own hands. To the best of my knowledge they have been advised repeatedly, or else why have they ever done anything to attempt to make lower speed machines and better contacts, etc. If, however, the work has been deglected by us, somebody is to blame, as Mr. Clark and the Works have been repeatedly advised of the failure of this apparatus. Certainly it seems that you cannot blame Mr. Northey or anyone outside the testing department. So the blame lies between our test department and Messrs. Lucas, and any failure of our test department cannot excuse the Lucas Company, unless our test department definitely instructed them to make something which is not standard with the Lucas Company. Even in such a case the Lucas technical department should point out that they would not make or be responsible for unsatisfactory arrangements Contd. | ||