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 to Dr. J.C. Morrison discussing the use of consulting engineers versus in-house development.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 133\1\ scan0250 | |
| Date | 15th July 1937 | |
| 1129. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}18/R.{Sir Henry Royce} 15th July, 1937. Dr. J.C. Morrison, The University, G L A S G O W. Dear Dr. Morrison, My Assistant, Mr. Edwards, has passed me your letter of the 25th June, and I have simultaneously received, via our Managing Director, a letter from your Patent Agents. Before going further into the matter, I think it would be as well if I gave you a picture of the situation as I see it. In the first place, Rolls-Royce do very little work with Consulting Engineers; as a matter of fact, I believe I am correct in saying that the Ricardo Laboratories are the only Consulting Group with which we have any dealings, and we regard these,mainly, as a National Institution, which requires support. The reason we do not do more with Consulting Engineers is because we produce such a specialised product that it is most difficult for anyone from outside to come in and help us appreciably. It is for this reason we keep quite a large staff of technical engineers with University degrees, who, after two or three years' contact with the product, are able to make useful contributions towards development. In the case of the Exhaust System, we are, of course, familiar with general American practice, and, in fact, quite recently we had the foremost practical automobile Silence engineer over here from the U.S.A., who endeavoured to design a system for us which would give better results than our own. He was not successful. | ||