G.I. Jive
Bill Martin
"They give you a private tank that features a little device called fluid
drive."
Can anyone out there tell me to what this lyric refers?
Thanks so much,
Bill
--
Bill Shatzer
On 13 Dec 2001, Bill Martin wrote:
> In Johnny Mercer's "G.I. Jive" there is a lyric referring to:
> "They give you a private tank that features a little device called fluid
> drive."
> Can anyone out there tell me to what this lyric refers?
M-5 tanks equipped with Cadillac engines featured 2-speed Hydra-matic
transmissions - commonly referred to in the vernacular as "fluid drives"
as that's how the Hydra-matic transmissions worked
Dunno if any other US tanks featured an automatic transmission but the
Cadillac-engined M-5s certainly did.
Cheers and all,
--
JCarew
>In Johnny Mercer's "G.I. Jive" there is a lyric referring to:
>
>"They give you a private tank that features a little device
>called fluid drive."
>
>Can anyone out there tell me to what this lyric refers?
An early type of what's now called an automatic
transmission if such a thing existed for tanks.
Jim
--
WalterM140
>drive."
Probably a reference to an automatic transmission.
Walt
--
Bill Shatzer
On 13 Dec 2001, Bill Martin wrote:
> In Johnny Mercer's "G.I. Jive" there is a lyric referring to:
> "They give you a private tank that features a little device called fluid
> drive."
> Can anyone out there tell me to what this lyric refers?
M-5 tanks equipped with Cadillac engines featured 2-speed Hydra-matic
John Brookes
The first automatic transmissions for tanks, developed I think by
Chrysler Corp, were called "Fluid Drive", and were based on transmission
fluids being pumped (turbined?) from one transmission component to
another, at various speeds through various gear components, both
foreward and reverse. Early post-war Chrysler cars used a spion-off I
believe.
Dare say there are better exoerts on thias thyan I, but that's my
recollection. And Johnny Mercer was one hell of a singer/songwriter,
whatever his lyrics meant!
John Brookes
--
George Z. Bush
"Bill Martin" <ake...@excite.com> wrote in message
news:9v93i4$11da$1...@nntp6.u.washington.edu...
> In Johnny Mercer's "G.I. Jive" there is a lyric referring
to:
>
> "They give you a private tank that features a little
device called fluid
> drive."
>
> Can anyone out there tell me to what this lyric refers?
Fluid Drive was an automotive transmission feature that I
believe was developed to replace manual "stick shift"
transmissions. It was used in military vehicles, including
tanks, during the war, and later was used commercially in
post war production. It was developed in 1939 by Chrysler
Corp.
George Z.
--
Peter Krynicki
>
> "They give you a private tank that features a little device called fluid
> drive."
>
> Can anyone out there tell me to what this lyric refers?
>
smooooooooooth, automatic transmissions.
hth
Pjk
--
HOST Comp Tanker
>
> "They give you a private tank that features a little device called fluid
> drive."
>
> Can anyone out there tell me to what this lyric refers?
>
"Fluid drive" was the name one of the US car manufacturers gave to their new,
smooooooooooth, automatic transmissions. >>
Ah, "GI Jive"...I'll be playing that this Sunday as part of a set at a World
War II Christmas reinactment...nothing like a Top 40 hit from the good old
days.
The concept of automatic transmission operation was given a material boost by
World War II. A pre-automatic transmission tank is a bitch to operate for the
driver, with each limb engaged in doing something most of the time. Operating a
clutch that controlled a transmission that was probably without the benefit of
the Synchromesh system is not something that is either easy or comfortable.
(This was one of the main reasons that the "co-driver"/hull machine gunner
position was retained as long as it was...some of these guys had a second set
of rudimentary controls to give the main driver some relief on long road
marches.)
The largely American development of the automatic transmission (where the
connection between the engine and flywheel and the drive shaft was made by
viscous fluid in a closely confined chamber) took most of the grief away. Now,
instead of two hand brakes and two foot brakes/clutches and a gearshift and a
throttle, the operator had the now standard "stop" and "go" pedals combined
with some steering means, and driving an armored vehicle went from heavy, back
breaking labor to the butt nuimbing fun that it is today.
Later vehicles have simplified this even further, with a steering wheel, stub
shift arm (which is really an electrical control switch), gas and brake. I once
had my girlfriend tooling around in the paddock in an M60A1 with minimal
instruction. She couldn't drive a Volkswagen safely, but she managed a Patton
just fine. Good lookin' little piece of fluff too...
The first issue automatic transmission armored vehicle that I am aware of was a
mid-war tank destroyer (M-18? Jackson or Hellcat?). I think that late M5 light
tanks were also so equipped. German and Japan experimented with automatic
transmissions, but never had operational vehicles with same.
Finally, the Czech "medium" tank that went by the German designation of 35 (t)
was sort of an "in betwixt and in between" example. On that ugly little pig of
a vehicle, the driver had a "preselection transmission" whereby he could move
the shift lever into 2nd gear while motoring along in 1st, then shift by
depressing the clutch pedal. All of the gear changing was done for him by the
transmission, through a complicated (per the Germans) pneumatic system that
moved the pinions around inside of the transmission. That it was not used
elsewhere says to me that the concept wasn't quite ready for prime time in the
mid-1930's
Terry L. Stibal
HOSTCom...@aol.com
--
ken...@cix.compulink.co.uk
> The first issue automatic transmission armored vehicle that I am
> aware of was a
> mid-war tank destroyer (M-18? Jackson or Hellcat?).
They may have been the first issue tanks with fully automatic
transmission, but they were not the the first tanks to involve
hydraulics. Developments of the Wilson preselector epicyclic gearbox
with a Daimler fluid flywheel were tested in Britain before WW2.
Britain had abandoned simple clutch and brake steering in favour of
one or more regenerative schemes by the twenties.
Ken Young
ken...@cix.co.uk
Maternity is a matter of fact
Paternity is a matter of opinion
--