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).
Responding to complaints about wing blueprints, discussing blueprint shrinkage and the adequacy of the drawings for making jigs.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\4\ scan0181 | |
| Date | 14th October 1941 | |
| 1021 To Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} from Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/EAG. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/EAG.13/ET.14.10.41. Regarding the report herewith from Ward to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}, while there are several things in it that I could criticise, the outstanding thing is item 5., in which he complains that the drawings have shrunk and were insufficiently detailed and that they had to complete new drawings. It is recognised that blue prints do shrink and that, when scaling them, allowance has to be made for this (especially if left for months), which is one of the reasons 10" lines are shown so that the amount of shrinkage can be allowed for. I fail to see why it was necessary for them to set the wings out on paper, which I take it Mr. Ward terms"making a complete set of new drawings". This setting out should have been done on timber, from which jigs should have been made. I should never expect to get hand made wings correct without supplying jigs to the wing makers. The prints supplied by us were quite adequate for making satisfactory jigs. They were not dimensioned. This was not due to insufficient Drawing Office staff, and as it is quite common practice to make samples by scaling drawings, we are not asking anything out of the ordinary. Another point is that Ward and Giles came here months ago. Giles in particular was here three days to see how we proposed to supply them with information and was quite satisfied. If they found, at a later date, that they could not get on with the job satisfactorily, they should have advised us, and not waited until the work should be finished before complaining. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/EAG. | ||