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).
Visit to the Mercedes museum and the Zeppelin works in Friedrichshafen.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 142\3\ scan0254 | |
| Date | 26th June 1937 guessed | |
| (2) round almost at running speed and in consequence saw very little of the plant. It was however extremely old fashioned and badly planned, bits and pieces lying all over the place and very dirty, so that we did not miss very much. They have rather a fine museum which is built into the show rooms and contains samples of all their products from the original Benz cars down to one of the 1935 Mercedes racing cars. The museum appears to be a general practice in Germany and is extremely useful in many ways. The little we saw of the Mercedes production left the impression of heavy design, poor finish especially of the castings and out of date machine equipment. Friedrichshafen. On 12th June we went to Friedrichshafen and were shown very completely the sister ship to the Hindenburg - now in course of erection. The ship was approximately three months from completion and was only partly covered with the outer fabric; we were, therefore, able to obtain an excellent idea of the construction employed and the enormous size of it. They were making preparations to insert one complete bay in the middle of the ship to compensate for the heavier gas, helium, which will be used in place of hydrogen in view of the Hindenberg disaster. We gathered that some understanding had been arrived at between Dr Eckener and the American authorities with regard to the supply of Helium for the German ships which can only be obtained in America. The Graf Zeppelin was also in its shed at Friedrichshafen but we were not allowed to see it. E/eH/Sidney | ||