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).
Design modifications for a slatted Bentley radiator grille model.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 87\1\ scan0189 | |
| Date | 21th December 1935 | |
| + no Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} from E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} STEADMAN c.Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} RRS. re Slatted Bentley Radiator. We are sending you the model of the slatted grille erected on a Bentley radiator, so that you can judge of its appearance. There are one or two points however we would bring to your attention which require modification before this grille can be considered a good mechanical job. Firstly, the slats are made up in brass, and the result is that they are not very rigid. We think steel should be used for this job, and that it can be satisfactorily chromium plated. The resulting increase of rigidity would be more than twice, and this is very necessary, so that they will remain perfectly straight and true, and the imperfections of the parallelism of the spacing will be considerably reduced from what is seen on the model. We also propose trying a slat with the front and rear end roll completely round into a bead. The second point is the stiffening wires half way along each group of slats should be rigidly coupled in the centre before the two groups are fixed on the radiator. This will prevent lateral vibration at the centre. The wires themselves which are somewhat visible at present can be moved back another 1/8". This will not reduce visibility much, but we think that we cannot do without this wire in any case. The model is not provided for the passage of the starting shaft at the moment, but we think there will be no trouble in fitting a mouse trap at the bottom end for this purpose. We should be glad to have your impressions from the appearance point of view, and we can then proceed with improving the structural points referred to above. I am attaching herewith a photograph of the Packard to enable you to compare the amount of back ground visible through the slats, with the R.R. model. | ||