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 from Maurice Olley discussing various automotive topics including personnel, patents, and vehicle dynamics.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 26\1\ Scan185 | |
| Date | 26th January 1957 | |
| COPY of letter from Maurice Olley, dated 26 Jan.57. C. Gzy. VS{J. Vickers} APM JPB Dear Ev{Ivan Evernden - coachwork}, Thank you very much for the two copies of Life of Royce. Re-reading these they are really excellent. There is a new book called "The organisation man" by Wm.H. Whyte, which I particularly want to get, because he appears to be hitting at the type of socialised robot which big business is breeding by the thousand. I have had some encounters with big business minds on this subject and have quoted F.H.R. more than once as a glaring example of the futility of the measuring sticks which they continually set up to gauge their ideal organisation men. I will tackle Schilling on transmissions. Had forgotten to do so. He is back on full time only this last week, but seems well, and the dr. passes him as o.k. When you question me about Paul Hefftler (who has now changed his name to Paul Heron) you are cutting to the quick. I understand G.M. as also Chrysler, have decided to pay him rather than fight him. I also understand he anticipates me by 19 days (?) in the U.S.A., while I anticipate him in England. Personally, I think the Daimler Benz patent anticipates us both. Your best reference source would be E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Williamson, whom you doubtless know, at the G.M. offices in Grosvenor Gardens. Am afraid that Hefftler has put it over on big business and his nuisance value is going to net him a fortune. The facts appear to be that Hefftler was in the U.S. patent office when my application came thro' and that in the interference arguments the G.M. arguments were grossly mishandled, leaving wide open opportunities for P.H. With regard to frame-mountings, Buick is the outstanding example of mounting the body only on the ascertained nodal points of the frame. Great improvement in silence but general jellying on certain types of rough road. I don't think the position of the wheels affects the pattern of the bending vibrations appreciably. These vibrations are of the order of 700-1000 cpm and of small amplitude and I think occur as though the sprung-mass were suspended in space. For other reasons, however, particularly handling, our wheelbases on American cars are certainly much too short. Did you hear the Cornell Aero. Lab. lecture? It would have pleased you a lot. We cannot seem to persuade the stylists that "The Trend", at whose name they bow reverently, is a golden-calf of their own devising, and that an engineer will put the wheels on a car where they are called for, and that we shall get used to it. Witness the Citroen DS.19 which is like nothing else on earth, but has one outstanding virtue - a suspension so soft that it is critically damped, and there is no such thing as a pitch or bounce frequency. Will write you soon about transmissions. Again thank you for FHR. Regards to "the boys". Yours Maurice Olley. We hear excellent reports of the R.R. power steering. | ||