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).
Comparing the D.W.S. and Smith's hydraulic jacking systems.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 26\3\ Scan163 | |
| Date | 26th October 1932 | |
| X3117 S/W. re- D.W.S.Jacks. Cx{Major Len W. Cox - Advertising Manager}1/KW26.10.32. Dictated 25.10.32. I happened to be talking to Mr.Nichols of Smith & Son at the Show, and he had apparently heard that we were standardising the D.W.S. on some of our chassis. He seemed quite at a loss to understand why we could select that jack when they had something so much better in the form of a jack worked from the driving seat irrespective of which wheel was required to be raised. He then showed me his apparatus consisting of a small control knob on,presumably, the instrument board, and a lever which when worked immediately raised the wheel selected. Of course this hydraulic system of Smith's, which is the Jackall system, when demonstrated in that way is certainly very impressive, but I was at a loss to know what were the drawbacks to it from our Works point of view. I know it costs a little more and may be a little heavier, and I know that you have certain objections to hydraulic control, but for a jacking system only occasionally used I presume that the objection to hydraulics would not be a very serious one. I suppose you are quite satisfied in your own minds that the D.W.S. is definitely much better for our purpose than the Smith's system of hydraulic control, but one is not so impressed from mere observation. At your leisure I should be glad to know what are your principal objections to the Smith's system. Ox. Hives RECEIVED 26 OCT 1932 | ||