5 FEBRUARY 1927, Page 38

Motoring Notes

Constantinesco's Infinitely

Variable Torque Converter - IT is a remarkable fact that during the last thirty years of rapid progress in the automotive world the gears of the ordinary motor-ear are, in all essentials, exactly the same as the gear incorporated in the first Panhard car.

To a certain class of motorists the gear-change movements of a car have always been something of a bugbear, and judging by the terrible noises one hears of rasping teeth„ the sooner some other form of gearing takes its place the better. A good many infinitely variable gears have been made, including the G.W.E. system, but the general trend of inven- tion seems now to be towards something which is automatic as well as infinitely variable. Mr. George Constantinesco, already well known as the inventor of the Interrupter gear, which enables a machine gun to shoot between the blades of an aeroplane propeller in flight, and also of Wave Transmission, has invented and, to a certain extent perfected, an automatically variable torque converter for motor-cars. Perhaps the simplest way of describing Mr. Constantineseo's idea is by way of a heavily-weighted rod hung vertically. The top of the rod 13, is arranged so that it can move a horizontal bar on which is a pawl and ratchet gear.

If, however, a sharp push or pull is given at " A " a great deal of the D strength used will be taken up by the movement at "B," causing the lever " C " to work the ratchet and pawl. The weighted point "D," because of its inertia, will not have time to move very far. The greater the force used at " A " and the quicker the push or pull, the greater will become the- move- ment at " B " and "C." Conversely, the -greater -the resistance at" C "the more willthe weight" D ".tend to move.

In Mr. Constantinesco's device the place of the rod is taken by a weighted arm pivoted on the crankshaft. This arm drives a complicated free-wheel specially constructed to withstand the very high frequency of the oscillations, and the somewhat jerky movement is compensated partly by a fly-wheel and partly by the elasticity of the free-wheels themselves.

Although the free-wheels are not of the pawl and ratchet

type. which have been shown in the diagram for the sake. 'of simplicity, their action is exactly the same as when an ordinary free-wheel bicycle is driven forward by giving the pedals a series of short pushes, never allowing them to complete their full cycle.

When the engine is merely ticking over, there is little or

no tendency for the car to move, for the Weighted end of the - arm or the point " D " of the diagram is doing all the move- ment, but as soon as the throttle is opened and the engine begins to "rev," the movement at the top end of the arm Or "B of the diagram becomes greater and greater, until the weight is almost stationary and the top of the arm is doing its maximum movement. It must be understood that the whole converter is dupliest in every respect. There are two weighted arms actuated cranks from the main crankshaft one on each side of engine flywheel which is An the. centre.. There are a two free-wheels and there is a double-acting device keeping the two inertia weights on the weighted arms step with each other.

The drive to the cardan shaft is direct from the shaft which the free-wheels are, through an unusually large unive joint. The drive is on the near rear wheel only. The rear a is solid and has two bevels, of Which either can engage with t bevel on the eardan shaft ; this is arranged by shifting 0, whole shaft slightly by Means au lever, in order to revert The entire torque being on the near rear wheel the adheis, to the road is claimed to be such that actually more power developed when hill-climbing-or when extricating the car fat a difficult place than is usual- with the drive on both batt Wheels.. The tendency with a drive on one wheel only, 'On reduced ad abstirdum, is to turn the car over on its side : ths it will be understood that the greater the torque on the Allied the greater will be its adhesion to the road.

Infinitely variable gears and torque converters are still their infancy,, and it remains to be seen whether they al prove satisfactory in highspeed engines. There can be littk doubt, however, that something of the kind will be mai the very mar future on engines of lesser speed. The Southra Railway Company are at present trying out Mr. Conga tineseo's system on one of their locomotives, and MC Shal

• await with interest the results of the tests.

hoNoR GOODHAEL