Monday 21st September 1903

Byron J Carter applied for a patent on his friction drive transmission. It was designed to replace the conventional transmission to provide, among other things, more precise control of a car’s speed. Carters radical new transmission used friction discs, instead of gears, so arranged as to be instantly changed to any desired speed. The discs in Carters transmission were able to move both forward or backward and could be used as a brake to stop the machine by reversing a lever. It was the precursor to todays disc brakes.