Kill the Messenger - this time the LA Times

glatt · 05-11-2005, 11:20 AM

I don't know how CVTs are made today, but I saw some old antique car from the early 1900 that had a CVT. It was pretty basic. The driveshaft ended in a flat disk that was maybe a foot or two in diameter. Then a rubber wheel rode that disk like a needle on a record player, except without that groove. The driver could move the wheel in and out on the spinning disk to either go slower in the center or faster in the edge. The wheel drove the axle. I was with my grandfather at the time, and we both marveled at this thing that was so cool, and so simple. I wonder how efficient it was. The friction fit of the wheel against the disk was the weak link.

tw likes to talk about technology so old it was on WWII planes. This thing was from the 1920s or so.

05-11-2005, 11:20 AM	#10
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	I don't know how CVTs are made today, but I saw some old antique car from the early 1900 that had a CVT. It was pretty basic. The driveshaft ended in a flat disk that was maybe a foot or two in diameter. Then a rubber wheel rode that disk like a needle on a record player, except without that groove. The driver could move the wheel in and out on the spinning disk to either go slower in the center or faster in the edge. The wheel drove the axle. I was with my grandfather at the time, and we both marveled at this thing that was so cool, and so simple. I wonder how efficient it was. The friction fit of the wheel against the disk was the weak link. tw likes to talk about technology so old it was on WWII planes. This thing was from the 1920s or so.

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