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 Joseph Lucas Limited regarding recurring issues and failures with Mellotone horns.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 166\9\ img032 | |
| Date | 7th December 1936 | |
| COPY e.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} MX{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} c. ROY.{Sir Henry Royce} c. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Wst. 6086 WST 7th. December 1936. BY.1/G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} Messrs. Joseph Lucas Limited, Great King Street, BIRMINGHAM. 19. Dear Sirs, MELLOTONE HORNS. ---------------- We are having a considerable amount of trouble with the Mellotone type of horn, the effect being that one of the horns goes out of action for very little reason, and customers are sending in their cars quite regularly to Cricklewood for the horns to be given attention, and some of our customers are complaining very bitterly for having to do so. In addition, our Test Department, who in the past have not had the horns delivered to them, are finding themselves in a similar position. This morning I was asked to inspect some horns by the Chief of the Test Department, he had been out with a car during the weekend and the horns had failed, he had them re-adjusted in the Works and went out with the car again, but had only got about half a mile when one of the horns went out of action. He spent about three quarters of an hour on the job on the road, but before he reached the Works the horn had again failed. I am aware of the fact that quite early on in our use of this type of horn we made complaints in regard to the horn failing under foggy weather conditions. This particular fault we are complaining of now is apparently from a different cause, but it is equally annoying even although the horn can be brought into action by a certain amount of re-adjustment, such re-adjustment we feel should not be necessary by a customer at frequent intervals on the road. We would suggest that you send one of your technical people over to our Works to stay with us for a few days, so that he might see precisely how the failure takes place with the object, of course, of finding a complete solution for the trouble, as otherwise we feel certain we shall be inundated with complaints from our clients. | ||