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 discussing design principles, advocating for thorough testing and careful consideration before committing to production.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 180\M6\ img011 | |
| Date | 16th December 1929 guessed | |
| (1) Or make tools or expensive patterns until we are both satisfied with the design & they have been made experimentally by hand & they have been thoroughly tested. Please excuse more at the moment as this post time. Remember that I am not entering it adversely but trying to help which I believe I can do on the design part of the work. You said that 40 ft. spans seem now too small. so I want you to reconsider whether we should not make our proposal 50 ft into 60 even at some loss to future extensions, it may mean that we ought to have one. bay big enough for anything and fix it on the sides by smaller bays. I hope however that the 50 will be simply right as we have spent some time on getting this near to perfection. You will see that I believe that design must be long considered & tried in many forms on paper so as to get good and lasting results, We at RR have had great experience & find it frightfully costly to make a mistake in production & rushing in to make even well considered schemes until they have been thoroughly be tested out, It is a universal mistake that has brought so many firms into trouble, Even with all our care we cannot avoid it, motto "Slow the word & command." "Quick the action", ie well considered then go for it. quickly having decided. but don't be in a hurry to decide, letter or sketches by later post if you cannot understand these. F H RoyceSir Henry Royce [Text in left margin, written vertically]: I am a little in favour of a tried undercrane but believe I can improve on what I saw & make it quite the position our design. | ||