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 Cadillac Motor Car Company regarding a 12 cyl. fan, needle bearing joints, and shock absorbers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\2\ img135 | |
| Date | 4th March 1933 | |
| CADILLAC MOTOR CAR COMPANY DETROIT. MICHIGAN CADILLAC AND LASALLE MOTOR CARS Mr. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} W. Hives Rolls Royce Ltd. Derby, England March 4th. 1933 Dear Hives: With regard to the jobs that I took over from Lovesey. Am sorry that these hung fire so long, but I came up against organisation difficulties. (And incidentally the Parts Dept. who sell parts last year complained that Rolls Royce were slow in paying their bills. Probably you will treasure this information as an effective club to use on an appropriate occasion.) 1. The Cadillac 12 cyl. fan complete goes forward to you today. 2. The Mechanics needle bearing joints (I stated propeller shaft type similar to those we are testing) are being handled by Mechanics Mfg. Co. here who will press the matter, looking for business. But here is another matter which may delay the thing or may lead to a visit from a representative at Derby. Mechanics Mfg. Co. supplied sample joints some years ago. Rolls Royce did not buy from them, but copied the joint almost exactly. Mechanics Mfg. Co. waived royalty rights provided Rolls Royce mentioned the type of joint in instruction book. Rolls Royce did not do this. Mechanics sent a man to Derby to try at least to see a joint, and he was refused admittance to the factory. Mechanics feel that with a perfect right to claim royalty, they have not been courteously treated. This I got personally from Ekstrom, their president. They have been decent about it to me, giving their standards on propeller shaft diameters to send to you, etc. Anything you can do on the personal side to offset any danger of "high and mightiness" in certain quarters will help to smooth over the situation. 3. Shock absorbers. Have spoken to B. D.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} Kunkle of Delco this afternoon about sending you some inertia shocks. These will be end-to-end discharge with external valves, 7" front arms and 11" rear, and I assume you can get them on an experimental car without axle control. They will send spare valves and test rig diagrams which will help you in obtaining a good setting. The procedure is to lock the inertia weight out of action, set the main bump and rebound valves to give a reasonable soft control. Then let down the inertia weight (which cuts out the main rebound valve and thus causes | ||