SELF-CHANGING GEARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 842, 10 December 1929, Page 6

SELF-CHANGING GEARS

ARMSTRONG-SIDDELEY NOVELTY DETAILS OF NEW INVENTION The latest Armstrong-Siddeley car, a model of which is now in Auckland, is notable because it embodies one of the most modern ideas in gear changing. The Armstrong-Siddeley self-chang-ing gear box is a compound epicyclic gear box giving (in addition to a solid drive on fourth or top speed) three forward speeds and one reverse speed. All gear wheels are permanently in mesh. Each indirect gear is obtained by applying a band brake of special form to one of four drums, each of which is integral with one element of a simple epicyclic gear. By moving the lever on the steering column head, a gear may be “preselected” for subsequent use, and engaged when required by depressing and releasing the clutch pedal, irrespective of the state of the gear when the selection is made. It is impos-

sible for two gears to be selected or engaged simultaneously. The control is entirely different from, and much simpler and more convenient to use than the ordinary kind. It consists of a pedal taking the place of the ordinary clutch pedal, and one short selector lever mounted in a dial above the steering wheel. The dial carries marks which indicate low (1), medium (2), normal (3), high (4), and reverse and neutral positions for the short selector lever which replaces the usual long-change speed lever control. The short lever selects the gear, while the pedal allows the gear to change itself, the point of importance being the fact that one gear can be selected while the car is running on another, the selected gear only being put into use when the control pedal is operated. When about to start away with the engine running, the short selector lever is naturally in the neutral position on the steering wheel dial. It is then moved into the low or reverse position, and upon the control pedal being fully depressed and released, the car gildes away. When, or before it is desired to change up, the short selector lever is moved into the medium speed position, but until the control pedal is again depressed or released, the actual change of speed is postponed. Normal or high speeds are operated in exactly the same manner, the act of changing down following the same routine, in that the desired gear or neutral is first of all selected by placing the short selector lever in correct position on the dial, and the box is allowed to change itself later by depressing and releasing the control pedal.