Spinning Levers - How A Transmission Works (1936)
Why Hacker News recommends it
It is held up as a model of clear, well-paced educational film and of the old-era instructional style.
What it is
A 1936 Chevrolet-sponsored film that explains how a car transmission works by treating gears as spinning levers. It uses physical models to make the mechanism clear.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2018 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec Animats · 2019-05 · on “Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements (1908)”
The editing, pacing, and style were better. Educational videos today tend to go to one of two extremes. Either they're a talking head with PowerPoint, like most of the "massively online" courses. Or they have way too many jump cuts, like theatrical movies which want your attention, not your understanding. There's also an annoying tendency to have distracting music and irrelevant graphics during narration. Here's an old Jam Handy film, "Spinning Levers", on how a transmission works.[1] There's a whole series of these Chevrolet films on the Internet Archive, covering major vehicle systems. Things to note: - There's a narrator and a demonstrator. We never see the narrator, and the demonstrator
Recommends jolmg · 2018-10 · on “Why some things are darker when wet (1988)”
Lately, because of a car situation, I've been watching car mechanic videos online. There's some old videos, like 1937 old, made by Chevrolet, that explain really well how different mechanics of a car work. One explains a transmission starting from levers[1], how they work to give mechanical advantage, and how gears are basically spinning levers. I ended up feeling like I could make a basic transmission if I only knew how to make metal pieces in the shapes I want. From there I've been looking at people disassembling automatic transmission and explaining the different parts. I gotta say, learning how these machines work mechanical advantage to something so convenient has really raised my inter
Recommends MaxBarraclough · 2020-06 · on “Strike a Solder Joint Behind Enemy Lines”
A couple of other examples: an old US Army training video on the workings of various categories of firearms [0], and an old video on how transmissions work [1]. Both make great use of physical models of the mechanisms. [0] [LINK] [1] [this video]
Recommends deaddodo · 2023-12 · on “1962 Military Innstructional Video on Magnetic Cores”
All of the old US gov't/mil funded education films are pretty good. * [LINK] * [this video] * [LINK] * [LINK] * [LINK] Etc.
Recommends _xerces_ · 2024-11 · on “A 15-minute intro to involute gears”
This old training video is great too, it also mentions the idea touched upon in the article that gear teeth are levers: Spinning Levers - How A Transmission Works (1936) [this video]
Cites dsfyu404ed · 2020-02 · on “Gears”
sigh If I don't post it someone else will. Here's the spinning levers video you've all already seen a million times: [this video]
Cites bramhaag · 2023-07 · on “Hydraulic Steering – Principles of Operation (1956) [video]”
Similar videos about cars: Chevrolet Suspension (1938): [LINK] How Differential Steering Works (1937): [LINK] How A Transmission Works (1936): [this video] And as a bonus, an explanation about transistors from 1953: [LINK]
Cites dTal · 2024-03 · on “Technical Manual TM 11-410: The Homing Pigeon (1945)”
I get a similar feeling looking at instructional videos from that era[0][1], or reading books like Stick and Rudder[2][3], or even the simple brilliance of the visual design of the London Underground[4]. There's a pervasive sense that despite the reams of progress that has been made in the science of human factors, simple straightforwardness is becoming an endangered species. [0] [this video] [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK] [4] [LINK]