Talk:Preselector gearbox

message: A succession of edits have resulted in the first paragraph saying: "It was originally invented... in 1928... and was first used in World War I tanks."
Does anyone know the correct dates? Perhaps Wilson used them in World War I tanks and then patented the gearbox in 1928. But this is just a guess as I'm not familiar with these details. Can anyone help? Adrian Robson 11:13, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Do you have any details of this Viratelle ?  There were plenty of epicyclic gearboxes around 1900 (see Lanchester in particular), but were they preselectors? Andy Dingley (talk) 12:43, 6 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Invented in 1928?

message: The confusion arises because Wilson designed "epicyclic gearboxes" for the purpose of steering tanks long before his pre-selector gearbox. 
* March 1917, the Oldbury gearbox trials between 8 different tanks (4 being current production "lozenge" Mark IIs), each fitted with a different transmission. As well as gearboxes, one was hydraulic, two electric, one a multi-clutch design and one had Wilson's first own-designed epicyclic gearbox, although this wasn't a pre-selector and wasn't even the main transmission - his first innovation was in using the easily-controlled nature of the epicyclic brake band to provide steering for tanks. The main transmission was a standard 4-speed crash (Wrigley?). 
* June 1917, the first mock-up of the Mark V appears, with the Wilson epicyclic steering gear, largely as tested. This was the first of the heavy tanks that could be driven by a single driver, without requiring him to signal orders inside to others working the brake levers.
* In 1918, some work went on to test a Lanchester epicyclic gearbox as the main transmission. The use of an epicyclic gearbox wasn't new, as Lanchester had used a manually-controlled . 
* 1928, Wilson uses his knowledge of epicyclic gearboxes controlled by brake bands to produce his pre-selector gearbox. His partner is John Siddeley, of Armstrong Siddeley. 
* 1929 Wilson has the first(?) Daimler Double Six (chassis 30661, which still exists), with a unique chassis re-designed by Reid Railton and  built by Thomson & Taylor. He fits his own design of pre-selector gearbox to it.
* 1929 Armstrong Siddeley offer Wilson pre-selector gearboxes as an option (before Daimler, but I don't know if it was before or after Wilson's Double Six).
* 1930, Daimler acquire Lanchester and (AFAIK) the first offering is a Lanchester Eighteen,  which has the manual Lanchester gearbox but the Daimler addition of a fluid flywheel. Wilson's Double Six also returns to Daimler and they like the gearbox so much they start offering it on production cars.
* 1931, first tank with a Wilson pre-selector gearbox was the Light Tank Mk II
* 1932, MG start offering pre-selector gearboxes (the Wilson design, made by ENV) in the racing MG K-types
Andy Dingley (talk) 00:48, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wilson's Chronology 

message: The Tiger tank of World War Two used a form of pre-selective gearbox, offering 8 speeds
Actually the Tiger used a copy of the Churchill tank's Merritt-Brown regenerative gearbox.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.40.254.31 (talk) 21:40, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Tiger tank

message: Request for explanation/Clarification needed: Is this sentence the problem for you? 
". . . while a semi-automatic transmission uses a clutch (or multiple clutches)???, like a traditional manual transmission" - from Manumatic. Eddaido (talk) 12:46, 31 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Clarification needed

message: Reading these two sections, they seem to describe the same thing. Either I missed something, or the descriptions could be made better, or they should be one section. Comments?  Stepho  talk  09:30, 12 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: There are several multi-clutch designs: one per ratio, binary selection of serial gearboxes, and dual clutch selection between two multi-ratio gearboxes. Until recently there was a hierarchy that made this clear. The distinction was trashed in this edit. I've now restored it. Andy Dingley (talk) 18:04, 12 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks, that makes it much clearer.  Stepho  talk  23:56, 12 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Multi-clutch gearbox vs Single ratio per clutch 

message: Mercedes made the silver arrows, not auto union. This is even mentioned on their respective Wikipedia pages.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.137.149.196 (talk) 22:45, 21 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: While it's true that the term was originally applied to the Mercedes GP cars of the 1930s, it has come to mean both the Mercedes and Auto Union cars of that period.  See, for example, Chris Nixon's very marvellous book "Racing The Silver Arrows", covering both marques.  Plus they were supposed to be white, only turning silver when the paint had to be removed to save weight.  Allegedly. Mr Larrington (talk) 02:38, 5 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  auto union mention 

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