The Ronan Pioneer

J. H. Newmark, New York automotive engineer, announces that after a period of seven years of research and experiments, a vacuum gear shifting device has been perfected which does away with the gear shifting lever commonly used on automobiles and enables the driver to do the shifting on the wheel by fingertip control. The vacuum gear shift, it is explained, requires a minimum of equipment and makes use of a natural element to shift the gears - the engine intake, used to create a vacuum. It requires only to remove the cover plate of the present transmission box and to apply a special one, in order to place the new gear shifting device on cars in use. This is done by attaching vacuum tubes leading to two small vacuum cylinders mounted on a cross member at the rear of the transmission case. A simple line also runs to the motor intake pipe. A pretty young model demonstrates the ease with which the gears may be shifted.