Transmission (mechanical device)

Plan of sprocket-and-chain "gearbox" in Benz Patent-Motorwagen, 1886 - 1888. Normal transmission is from fixed pulley 34 to counter-shaft 22. Low gear is from loose pulley 31 through the gears and clutch 36.
Transmission internals for a 2009 Volkswagen Golf

A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication or reduction, in a machine.

It was invented by Louis Renault (the founder of Renault). It had been anticipated by Carl Benz, who in 1886 used sprockets and chains to and from an auxiliary shaft and a clutch to provide a second, low gear in the first practical car, his belt-driven Patent-Motorwagen Nr. 2.

A transmission can have a single, or fixed, gear ratio or it can have variable ratios; a variable-ratio transmission can have multiple discrete gear ratios or be continuously variable. Variable-ratio transmissions are used in many kinds of machinery, especially vehicles.

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