My great Uncle Harry (George Harry Smoak) drove

a 1926 Model T Ford touring car through at least, I think, 

1952.  A Model T touring car was a "four door convertible". 

Yeppers, it had four doors and, yeppers, the top could be 

folded down. The ID number indicates it to have been built

in October 1925 using an engine from Ford's River Rouge

plant.



From a technical standpoint, I see the Model T's transmission 

as very similar to early automatic transmissions. The main 

difference is the Model T driver manually controlled the shift 

with foot pedals whereas the evolving automatic transmissions 

used hydraulics, governors and vacuum sensors to shift 

automatically.



The Model T had three foot pedals associated with the 

transmission. (Nope, no acclerator...that was a lever on the 

steering column.)  The right pedal was the brake...yep, the 

brake band was in the transmission. The left pedal

was low/neutral/high. All the way down was low gear, all 

the way out was high gear and halfway was neutral. The center 

pedal was reverse. If one held the left pedal mid-range 

(neutral) and pressed the center pedal, reverse

was engaged. IMO, rather ingenious for its time.

The mechanical action when a pedal was depressed was to 

compress a fabric lined band in the transmission around a 

drum associated with a planatary gear set.  (Same as today, 

BTW.)



Well, one of the issues with this transmission was the band 

associated with the low gear wore out frequently. The result 

being it would slip and the car wouldn't move or would barely 

creep with little power.

Uncle Harry used to vist us, driving his Model T. Well, coming 

from the south (where he lived) one had to drive up a somewhat 

steep hill. Many times Uncle Harry's Model T wouldn't make it 

as the (worn) low gear band slipped and there was no power to 

climb the hill. The solution was quite simple. Merely turn the car 

around and back up the hill as the reverse band received little 

wear and provided the gear reduction necessary to climb the hill.



Another Model T story: The starter switch (yep, it had an 

electric starter as well as the front crank) was actuated by a large 

button that protruded vertically through the wooden floor board. 

When we visited Uncle Harry and Aunt Annie at their old Flemington 

place (not the old Furman Smoak house...the other one about a 

quarter mile to the west) we kids would like to play

in the Model T. Remember, now, if one wasn't depressing the left 

most floor pedal, the car was in high gear (unless a left most 

lever was pulled back disabling the transmission and applying the 

"parking" brake). Anyhow, Uncle Harry saw no need to pull said lever 

back when in his back yard.

But, then, when we kids were playing in the car, we'd often sit on the

floor (yeppers) on the starter switch button. The result, the 

starter would engage and the car would start moving forward! 

Whoa, Nelly!!!!!



I'm gonna restore that old Model T one of these days.

And, it'll be any color as long as it's black.