>From the internet: Hobbs, Howard Frederick (19021982)by G. H. Brooks Howard
Frederick Hobbs (1902-1982), inventor, was born on 21 September 1902 at East
Marden, Adelaide, fifth of six surviving children of South Australian-born
parents James Harris Hobbs, fruit-grower, and his wife Mary Eliza, nie Pitt.
Educated at Prince Alfred College, as a boy Howard showed an aptitude for
things mechanical. At 14 he built a full-size aeroplane (without wings) that
was taxied around the familys garden, powered by a motorcycle engine. On
leaving school he worked at his fathers orchard and market garden at
Paradise. He married Phyllis Dorothy Reid, a schoolteacher, at Payneham
Methodist Church on 12 May 1925. Next year he applied for his first patent, an
improved appliance for the grading of fruit. Driving motorcars and lorries
from an early age, Hobbs cherished an ambition to eliminate the need for gear
changing. After many experiments he had a light car fitted with the `Hobbs
gearless drive ready for testing; Professors (Sir) Robert Chapman and (Sir)
Kerr Grant of the University of Adelaide found it satisfactory and simple to
operate. Hobbs Gearless Drive Ltd was formed in 1931 to market the device and
to administer the patent rights. In June 1931 Hobbs, with his wife and
daughter, sailed for Britain, where he also took out patents. For the next
thirty-five years the family were to live at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire; two
sons were born. Hobbs was unable to persuade car manufacturers to use the
`gearless drive: based on rotating weights, it incorporated a free-wheel
clutch, or ratchet, which was probably the weakness in the device. Other
inventors with similar ideas also failed to attract interest in their
mechanisms. After engaging in war work, in 1946 Hobbs was helped by a
wealthy
industrialist to form Hobbs Transmission Ltd. He discarded the gearless drive
and developed the `Mechamatic transmission. The new automatic gearbox was
more complicated, with epicyclic gears and hydraulically operated friction
clutches. Mechamatic, with four forward gears, unusual at that time, was
lightweight and suitable for small cars. Many well-known makers built
prototypes but the only one to reach production was the Lanchester Sprite,
produced in 1955 by the Birmingham Small Arms Co. Ltd. For financial reasons
BSA soon abandoned the project. Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd
bought
BSAs shares in Hobbs Transmission and, anticipating its use in the Ford
Cortina, built a factory at Manchester to manufacture the Mechamatic. When
Ford decided not to proceed, Hobbs Transmission went into liquidation. In the
1960s Hobbss son David successfully drove a Lotus Elite fitted with the
Mechamatic gearbox in international motor races. The family moved to Napton,
near Rugby, about 1965 and Hobbs and his son John set up a workshop. They went
back to the original concept of the infinitely variable drive, but this time
hydraulic, not mechanical. Hobbs took out an Australian patent in the name of
Variable Kinetic Drives Ltd, but like its predecessors this also failed
commercially. In 1977 Hobbs was invited to participate in the British Genius
Exhibition at Battersea.
> From: BillDentin@aol.com
> Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:48:46 -0400
> To: ponobill@gmail.com; kaskas@cox.net
> CC: fot@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: [Fot] Racing a Triumph TRANSMISSIONS
>
> Amici...
>
> With all of this talk about transmissions, and my serious hip/knee
> arthritis issues, what would really interest me is an automatic. Anyone
know of any
> options open to me there? I tend to be a Purist, so hopefully it should
> fit in the original TR3 tranny case.
>
> Bill (Damdinger)
>
> PS Actually, I don't know about over here, but back in the day over in
> Europe, they did run some automatic transmissions in race cars. The way I
> understand it, David Hobbs family built automatic transmissions. I am not
sure
> what they went into, but I am going to guess Jaguar as the Tornado Cars
> Works racing logs we have talk about racing against the 'Hobbs Jag'.
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