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).
Decision between black or cream faces for dashboard instruments.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 15\7\ Scan117 | |
| Date | 1st May 1929 | |
| x7530 H3 To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} re Dashboard Instruments. Sg{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}10/El.5.29 Copy to Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} C. PN.{Mr Northey} Referring to R2/M9.5.29 and the question of instruments with black or cream faces, some time after we had agreed to the introduction of the Framed instrument patch the question arose as to whether the instruments themselves were to have cream or black faces. LHS{Lord Herbert Scott}, C. and myself went into this matter very thoroughly and we specially arranged to see a car - one fitted with the black instruments and the other with the cream. We came to the conclusion that we did not like the appearance of the cream faced ones. They appeared to us to look cheap, and the other criticism of this was that they reflected too much light when illuminated, and this light is apt to shine up into the driver's face. The criticism of their looking cheap appears to be borne out as I understand that white dials are fitted to the cheapest English, French and American cars, that is, the Morris and Clyno, the Citroen and Chevrolet. LHS{Lord Herbert Scott} had white ones on his Clyno, did not like the appearance of them at all and additionally found that they had the bad disadvantage of very soon getting dirty. We have always thought that the black ones on RR cars were extremely handsome and dignified in appearance, and it is worthy of note that instruments of this type have been adopted by the more expensive American cars such as the Lincoln and Packard, which as you know claim to be the highest class American cars, and they are also used by Lanchester's. During the many years that black faces have been used on RR cars, we can hardly recollect a single criticism of them by customers. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} | ||