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 Newport News Shipbuilding offering a new steel disc wheel with enclosed test reports.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 42\4\ Scan165 | |
| Date | 6th February 1924 | |
| NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING AND DRY DOCK COMPANY Newport News, Virginia. Special Representative John Guy Monihan 9-235 General Motors Building Detroit, Michigan February 6, 1924. Mr. L. J.{Mr Johnson W.M.} Belnap, President, Rolls-Royce of America, Inc., Springfield, Mass. Dear Sir: The resources, which made the Leviathan the fastest ship on the seas and the West Virginia the greatest of all battleships, are shown by picture and described by text in a book which I am sending you here-with - entitled "The Gateway to the Sea". The engineering ability that gives life to the great plant at Newport News offers to you a new steel disc wheel with greater beauty and strength than the conventional types, and with properties never before attained, a riding quality of exceptional softness, the elimination of road vibration, and consequently greater comfort to passengers and longer life for the car and tires. Price competitive - sizes 20", 21" (the balloon types), and 23" - 24". Enclosed please find report A-2 from our Automotive Wheel Experimental and Research Department describing FLEXSILIENT Wheels and showing tests on our 8,000 Pound Pneumatic Testing Machine for accelerated lateral flexing and fatigue tests. This shows the life of the wheel to be approximately 300,000 miles. Copies of these tests are being forwarded to your Engineering Department. The stability of the source from which materials are to come is quite as important as the quality of materials. The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company is one of America's greatest manufacturing organizations. Very truly yours. John Guy Monihan. JGM/EP{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} | ||