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).
Analysis of a component fracture reported by a customer, concluding it was a fatigue failure.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 47\5\ Scan071 | |
| Date | 26th August 1926 | |
| - 2 - the letter where the customer reported the fracture, he stated "the car started a terrible wheel wobble, and when he came out of same, he found something had gone wrong with his steering. The same letter also made it quite clear that a wobble of high intensity had been experienced on quite a number of occasions, and we had had the car at the Works to deal with the matter; apparently up to the time the fracture occurred we had failed. A review of the facts of the case after receiving your memo has not altered my opinion. The type of fracture was one which had developed over a long period of time in one case, and over a fair period of time in the second, and both faults in the tube were occurring at one and the same time. The fracture of the tube in one place allowed it to drop, resulting in breaking the tube in the second place, where a fatigue failure was gradually creeping through the metal already. These evidences are quite clear and beyond question, fatigue fractures being of such a nature that anyone used to examining fractures can from an examination of the fracture, indicate what has occurred, and roughly form an opinion of the length of time over which the fracture has been gradually working through the material. BY. {R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} | ||