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 The Rover Company Ltd to W.A. Robotham regarding an enclosed letter, a magnetic gearbox, and engine development.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 127\2\ scan0137 | |
| Date | 24th April 1940 | |
| TELEGRAMS: ROVER.COVENTRY. THE ROVER COMPANY LTD NEW METEOR WORKS COVENTRY 1091 TELEPHONE Nº 88081. YOUR REF. OUR REF. MCW/JM.{Mr Morley} 24th. April, 1940. W.A. Robotham Esq., Messrs. Rolls-Royce, Ltd., DERBY. Dear Robotham, I am enclosing herewith a letter from a Mr. H.H. Morley which clearly explains itself. We thought you ought to be advised of this because it seems that the gentleman is entirely willing to give away quite a lot of your hard earned information. We have turned down his application. You will realise that we do not want to be brought into the matter at all, directly or by inference. I am sorry that I have not yet invited you to come down and see the bits of our magnetic gearbox, the reason being, as you may have guessed, that the device went slightly sour on us in the early stages of its tests, and we are having to experiment with a number of different clutch plate materials. However, I think there is a very good chance that it will be satisfactory in the long run, and I will certainly let you know as soon as we have anything reasonably impressive to show. We paid a visit recently to Mr. Aspin, I think you have also been interested in his engine. It seems very far reaching at first, and I think it has provided us with a lot of information for the further development of poppet valve heads. We were most impressed by the fact that the inventor, even at this stage, is unable to give any satisfactory reason for his ability to run with such obviously high compression pressures without detonation. Have you any views on the subject? We have some tentative ones of which we hope to establish the truth or otherwise with some tests which we are about to do on our new engine. Do come and see us if you have time at any time, magnetic gearbox or no magnetic gearbox. Yours sincerely, M.C. Wilks ENCL: Letter. | ||