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 Capt. S.B. Wilks of The Rover Company discussing various recent engineering developments and inviting him for a visit.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 115\1\ scan0364 | |
| Date | 24th June 1937 | |
| 1020 Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}14/R.{Sir Henry Royce} 24th June, 1937. Capt. S.B. Wilks, The Rover Company Ltd., New Meteor Works, COVENTRY. Dear Wilks, What about this visit ? When you come over we should like to talk bearings to you. We do not understand your bearing tests. We have just completed 20,000 miles on a soft crankshaft on one of our cars with the aluminium tin alloy, and the bearings are perfect. With hardened shafts we have got to the point where we can get a life four or five times that of white metal. We have got a comic flywheel to show you. It is an economy device available for people who wish to leave out main bearings. It makes a three-bearing 6-cylinder engine feel like one with 7 bearings. We have got an oil filter which we think is better than anything we have previously seen. We have also got one or two comic engines, which illustrate there are a great many ways of doing a job and getting the same result - a few times you can get a better result. We have got the most ridiculous device for reducing clutch pedal pressure by 50%. It costs and weighs practically nothing. When will you come over and dis-believe us ? I want to ask you how to get decent coachwork cheaply, and to know all about your body costs. We believe it is going to pay us to make dies even for 500 automobiles. We are absolutely disgusted with the Honourable Society of Coach and Wagon Builders. | ||