Is This the Transmission of the Future ?
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ANEW automatic gear-change device, which experts in the car industry believe may eventually be widely applied to all motor vehicles, is shcietly to be tried out on a number of la..ses in New York, says Reuters trade service. This is an hydraulic transmission, in which the ratios are changed automatically by means of oil under pressure.
In all, 125 buses equipped with this transmission system have been ordered from the General Motors Truck and 534
Coach Division of the Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Co., of Pontiac, Michigan-25 being for the Fifth Avenue Coach Co., 50 for the New York City Omnibus Corporation, and SO for the Chicago Motor Coach Co. The buses, which will be powered with oil engines, are 40-seaters.
The hydraulic drive or torque converter is said to .be more simple than the present gear transmission systems. The engine is started with a hand lever on the dashboard in the neutral position. To get away from rest, this lever is pushed into the forward position and the engine speeded up by means of the accelerator. Thereafter, the lever is not touched. The vehicle moves off, and when it reaches a certain speed direct drive is automatically engaged. The speed is then controlled entirely by means of the accelerator.
Although it is not expected that this new hydraulic gear change will he seen on 1939-model commercial vehicles, engineers are watching its application with interest, in the belief that completely automatic transmission of power will be one of the most important developments likely to take place in the near future.