transmissions

Early transmissions included the right-angle drives and other gearing in windmills, horse-powered devices, and steam engines, in support of pumping, milling, and hoisting.

Most modern gearboxes either reduce an unsuitable high speed and low torque of the prime mover output shaft to a more stable lower speed with higher torque, or do the opposite and provide a mechanical advantage (i.e increase in torque) to allow higher forces to be generated. Some of the simplest gearboxes merely change the physical direction in which power is transmitted.

Many typical automobile transmissions include the ability to select one of several different gear ratios. In this case, most of the gear ratios (simply called "gears") are used to slow down the output speed of the engine and increase torque. However, the highest gears may be "overdrive" types that increase the output speed