Infinite speed transmission with reciprocating yokes

Claim 1

A power transmission including, a case, an input shaft journalled in said case, cam means driven by said shaft, an output shaft also journalled in said case and in alignment with said input shaft, reciprocating means driven by said cam means, an arm member shift plate, arm members swingably mounted on said shift plate and coupled to said reciprocating means whereby oscillating motion is imparted to a pair of said arms, elongate gear plates having parallel gear racks thereon with each gear plate disposed intermediate a pair of arm members so as to be driven in a reciprocating manner by said pair of arms, paired drive assemblies driven by each of said gear plates and each of said assemblies including a driven gear enmeshed with and driven by a gear rack on one of said gear plates, a driving gear enmeshed with an output shaft mounted gear, clutch means coupling said driven gear to said driving gear and operable to impart rotation to said driving gear of each drive assembly coincident with driven gear rotation in one direction and to overrun during opposite rotation of said driven gear whereby torque is imparted to the output shaft alternately by the driving gears of the drive assemblies, and said shift plate adapted for positioning relative said gear plates whereby the point of contact between said arm members and their respective gear plates may be varied with respect to the axis of arm oscillation to vary the magnitude of gear plate travel and hence the speed of the output shaft.