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 Wellworthy Piston Rings Ltd. discussing the demand, experimentation, and proposed use of bearings for soft shafts.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 115\5\ scan0024 | |
| Date | 5th May 1938 | |
| 1020a? WORKS TELEPHONE LYMINGTON 520 WORKS TELEGRAMS "WELLWORTHY" PRIVATE TELEPHONE LYMINGTON 232 MANAGING DIRECTOR'S OFFICE WELLWORTHY PISTON RINGS LTD., LYMINGTON HANTS JH/KES 5th May, 1938. W. A.{Mr Adams} Robotham, Esq., Messrs. Rolls-Royce Ltd., DERBY. Dear Mr. Robotham, Thank you very much for your letter of the 2nd instant. I have arranged for Mr. Blackith to come along for a preliminary discussion, (he is away to-day) and we will then have a general discussion later. With regard to progress, the position is this. There seems undoubtedly to be a demand for soft shafts and that is probably the biggest field for this material and, apart from statements made by Mr. Hall, there does not seem to be much information available that bearings on soft shafts have been experimented with to any large extent. I believe one Bentley car was so fitted and ran 20,000 miles with satisfactory results, but beyond this car, I have heard nothing at all. I propose, therefore, to put some bearings for soft shafts in certain machine tools. I have not, however, quite got tooled up for the job. We have already visited the trade pretty thoroughly and have orders for thirteen experimental lots from various people, including such firms as Leylands, Bristol, Morris, Nortons, Dennis and others, so you can see we have done quite a good deal of propaganda work while our machine shop people are getting our jigs and tools for us, to machine up the various orders and experiments we have in hand. | ||