The Constantinesco was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

produced from 1926 to 1928. It was built by George Constantinesco, a

n-born

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

, who had gained fame by his invention of an improved version of a

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

synchronization gear A synchronization gear (also known as a gun synchronizer or interrupter gear) was a device enabling a single-engine tractor configuration aircraft to fire its forward-firing armament through the arc of its spinning propeller without bullets strik ...

(a device allowing aircraft-mounted machine guns to fire through the propeller without striking the blades themselves) that replaced the clumsy mechanical linkages that had been previously employed with a

hydrostatic Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body "fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an imme ...

device based on his own novel

theory of sonics The theory of sonics is a branch of continuum mechanics which describes the transmission of mechanical energy through vibrations. The birth of the theory of sonics is the publication of the book ''A treatise on transmission of power by vibrations' ...

, or "wave transmission".

Mechanical torque converter

The inspiration behind the car was Constantinesco's 1923 invention of the "oscillating masses" mechanical

torque converter A torque converter is a type of fluid coupling that transfers rotating power from a prime mover, like an internal combustion engine, to a rotating driven load. In a vehicle with an automatic transmission, the torque converter connects the power ...

, which replaced clumsy gear shifting with a smooth, highly efficient, continuously variable transmission. The transmission ratio was determined by the oscillation of a pendulum, the extent of the oscillations being determined by the pendulum's mass, ingenious attachment, and dimensions in combination with the torque and speed of the engine and the road wheels. An oscillating masses torque converter was used to eliminate the need for a complex geared automotive transmissions which were heavy, required shifting gears, and could be inefficient. Compared to a similar car with a gear based transmission, Constantinesco's needed a substantially smaller engine, was lighter overall, and was more fuel efficient. In the car, the mechanical torque converter was embodied in a 494 cc twin-cylinder

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being comple ...

engine of his own design, where it was mounted between the engine's cylinders.

Demise

The car was built in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

with the gearbox (on the rear axle for forward, neutral and reverse) built in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was exhibited at the 1926

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...

but only a few were made.

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

signed a "lucrative" royalty agreement to manufacture the torque converters, giving Constantinesco a $100,000 advance on royalties, but didn't make any, leaving the inventor deeply in debt and the mechanical torque converter sidelined.

References

* {{cite book , series=Cars and Motor-Cycles , title=Constantinesco torque converter , year=1928 , last=Haycraft , first=W.C. , editor=Lord Montagu of Beaulieu , editor-link=:en:John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu , publisher=Pitman , location=London & Bath , volume=III , pages=1171–1178 , ref=Montagu, 1928, Constantinesco torque converter *

David Burgess Wise David Burgess-Wise is a motoring author, enthusiast, and automobile historian. According to the dustcover of the book "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles" he edited in 1979, David Burgess Wise ith no "-"was born in 1942. A motoring wr ...

, ''The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles'' Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Romania George Constantinescu