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Where Credit is Due

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30th April 1954

Page 70

Page 70, 30th April 1954 — Where Credit is Due

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THE ultimate disappearance of the clutch appears to be a foregone conclusion, although it is taking a long time to die. Over the years. designers have constantly sought for automatic transmissions that would relieve the driver of a portion of his effort. The consequence of this is that in America car owners of the present generation are growing up as strangers to the traditional systems of gear changing.

In Britain, although the automatic gearbox is available in the luxury field, considerable time is likely to elapse before this trend extends to the mass of the motoring public.

With the commercial vehicle, the ease of driving brought about by an automatic transmission will commend itself specially in respect of such vehicles as ambulances and fire appliances. There is particular interest, therefore, in the news that operational tests are being carried out on commercial chassis in Britain, using automatic gears of a. type generally regarded as of American origin.

Progress in this sphere will naturally be regarded as of first-rate importance. At this stage, however, it may be permissible to pause and recall. that Britain has made no mean contribution to this particular section of engineering progress. Nothing, it is said, succeeds like success and the publicity that has backed the millions of automatic transmissions produced in the United States has obscured, for much of the world, the past efforts of our own designers and manufacturers.

Without attempting to examine their progress in detail at this juncture, it may be worth recording just one incident. An automatic box, similar in many respects to that later produced by General Motors, appeared in Manchester at least 20 years ago. The designer was Mr. C. H. Flurscheim, at present assistant chief electrical engineer to the MetropolitartVickers Electrical Co., Ltd., and the car in which it was incorporated ran many thousands of miles, being examined by leading representatives of the industry.

Unfortunately, the commercial possibilities at that stage did not seem to justify further development of the design. During the intervening years the facile phrases conceived by American publicity experts have done their work well, so well that even in Britain many usually well-informed people forget their own country's achievements. Much credit is due to the U.S. automobile engineering industry, although, we venture to observe, its members do not have all the good ideas all the time. But they know it pays to advertise.