The Auto Episode - August 2022 - Invention 20
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Automatic Transmission The introduction of the automatic transmission offered drivers a "no obligation, no hassle" form of shifting. Early automobiles only offered manual transmissions, which were similar in principle to today's manual transmissions. These cars had two forward gears and one reverse coupled to the engine via a set of pedals. But as cars got bigger and traffic got worse, engineers began looking for a way to "automatically" shift the car from one gear to another.
The first automatic transmission was invented in 1921 by a Canadian steam engineer, Alfred Horner Munro. Munro designed his device to use compressed air instead of hydraulic fluid, so it lacked power and was never sold commercially. General Motors then developed the first automatic transmission with hydraulic fluid in the 1930s and introduced the "Hydra-Matic" transmission in 1940. The 1948 Oldsmobile was the first model to use a true automatic transmission. The Hyrda-Matic, developed by GM engineer Earl Thompson, was billed as: "The biggest advancement since automatic launch." The Hydra-Matic was continually improved and refined until 1955, but the basic design and theory used was remarkable throughout its consistent long-lived history.
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