Howard Frederick Hobbs and His Transmission Heritage

Automotive engineers have always been involved in a constant search for an innovative solution that can solve the problem of varying the gear between the driving and the driven members in a vehicle automatically and in an infinite number of different ratios. Long before the arrival of continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), engineers had something to offer in this field. In this article, we will consider a rich heritage of transmission solutions left by Howard Frederick Hobbs, a South-Australian pioneer of the automotive transmission industry.

Born in 1902 in Adelaide, South Australia, Hobbs started driving motorcars from an early age and dreamed of inventing a technology that would exclude the necessity for gear changing. He spent seven years working on his gearless (variable) until he had a working model operating in a "baby Austin" car. His invention gained the support of academic staff from Adelaide University. In 1931, a talented automotive engineer established his own company named Hobbs Gearless Drive Ltd to promote his innovative solution, to market the device, and to manage the patent rights.

The key component of this transmission is an epicycloidal (planetary) gear set composed of a disk holding 2 planet pinions (wheels) on each of which there is an eccentric mass, throwing the pinions markedly out of balance. Meshing with the planet wheels is a sun gear attached to a shaft, which in turn is connected to the front end of a long laminated spring shaft. This shaft, paired with a special roller clutch, plays the role of what, in other types of infinitely variable gears, would be the ratchet gear, or "mechanical valve".

Hobbs didn’t manage to convince automakers to give a chance to his variable transmission, the thing is that a free-wheel clutch (also known as a ratchet) included in the design of this transmission was considered by many experts as a failure-prone element of this device. Other enthusiasts with similar solutions also did not become a success at that time. As a result, the company was closed in 1941.

However, Hobbs didn’t think of giving up and in 1946 he, with the support of a wealthy industrialist, founded Hobbs Transmission Ltd. Hobbs completely abandoned his gearless technology and devoted all his efforts to development of another transmission technology that was named “Mechamatic”. This automatic transmission combined epicyclic (planetary) gears and hydraulically operated friction clutches. This lightweight transmission had 4 forward gears, unusual at that time, and could be installed in compact cars. Famous automakers of that time created numerous vehicle prototypes equipped with the Mechamatic unit, but the only one to reach the stage of a fully operating pilot model was the Lanchester Sprite, produced in 1955 by the Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) Co. Ltd. This model was supposed to become the first British light car equipped with an automatic transmission, if it had reached a large-scale production. However, due to financial difficulties, BSA soon shut down the project.

Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd acquired BSA’s assets in Hobbs Transmission and, planning its application in the Ford Cortina, constructed a plant in Manchester to produce the Mechamatic. However, later Ford abandoned this idea, and Hobbs Transmission ceased to exist. In the 1960s Hobbs’s son David showed a good result at the international racing competitions, driving a Lotus Elite equipped with the Mechamatic technology.

In 1965 and Hobbs and his son John opened a workshop. They decided to improve the original concept of the gearless solution, but this time making it hydraulic rather than mechanical. Hobbs obtained an Australian patent for this technology, but like other similar technologies of that time it didn’t find its place on the market.

Although considered by many as a genius in the field of automotive transmissions, Hobbs didn’t manage to develop a commercially-viable product for the automotive market.