An Automatic Transmission Question!

[JIM CLC # 15000]

05-06-06
TO: All owners of Used, Abused and Misused Cadillacs La Salles and other desirable old iron.
Greetings!
About two days ago I received, VIA USPS in my mail-box,  a LEAKE Auction catalog where they (Leake auction) will be conduction an auction in TULSA, OK the 9th 10th and 11th of June, In The Year Of Our LORD
,2006. There are a few cars in the catalog that get my attention.
On page 20 of said catalog is for sale a 1935 REO Coupe. model 7 S CROWN ROYAL with a Rumble Seat, no less! BUT, What really got my attention was the written discreption of the car! The write-up said that the Car had the origional 6 cylinder engine and a SELF-SHIFTER AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION. Boy, I knew that R.E.O. was unhappy when GM let him go, But I didnt know that he was so mad as to develop an auto matic trans to spite GM.
Some one please tell me that GMS OLDSMOBIBLE had the first auto transmission. (yes, I know that the PORD Model T had the first automatic [such as it was]).Does anyone care to respond?
Good Luck, Jim

[JIM CLC # 15000]

05-06-06
Yes, I know. You have to use your imagination to see the "question" but its there in the last paragraph.
I just hope my last post does not make anyone go-off the deep-end.
Good Luck, JIM

[Doug Houston]

No, youre not losing it.

Yes, Reo DID hae an automatic transmission in the early thirties. It shifted automatically, and the control was a lever in the instrument panel. The car youre talking about would be an interesting piece of history. That series of Reo is probably a classic in the CCCA.

The Oldsmobile "safety" automatic transmission was first put in a production car in 1937 through 1939. It was manufactured by Buick in Flint, Michigan. Buick used it in their 1938 series 40 cars, for just the one year. The transmission was the precursor of what later became Hydra-Matic in 1940. Cadillac offered Hydra-Matic, starting March 1, 1941.

Now, if you want to go even farther back, Buick built a friction drive, continuously variable ratio transmission in the twenties. It didnt prove to be practical in several ways, so it was scratched, and a ratio-changing transmission began to be favored by the GM moguls. Hydra-Matic was the ultimate product. Buicks engineers had their heart and soul in their "Roller" transmission, and were crushed when it was abandoned in favor of the other concept. In 1948, they accomplished hydraulically what they had sought to do by friction in the twenties.