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Article: Technology tames snow. (engineering innovations in new snow-throwers)
- Article from:
- Popular Science
- Article date:
- January 1, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Bonnier Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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TECHNOLOGY TAMES SNOW
I could hardly believe what I saw. Even after I saw it work I was mystified.
I was at the annual Outdoor Power Equipment Institute Exposition, in Louisville, Ky., and "it" was a snow-thrower transmission with a new drive system from Yamaha Motor Corp. What was so unusual about the drive? It smoothly controlled the speed of the transmission output shaft over an infinitely variable range like continuously variable transmissions I'd seen in cars such as the Subaru Justy. But this drive system did so without any belts, gears, hydraulics, clutches, or electronic controls.
An operational cutaway of the transmission at the Expo, ...