Oscar H. Banker (born Asatour Sarafian; May 31, 1895 – January 1979) was an Armenian American inventor who patented a number of works, including an

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...

for automobiles, the needleless inoculation gun, the primary controls of the first Sikorsky helicopter, and power steering. He is considered by some as the "father of automatic transmission." He is accredited as the inventor of the first practical automatic transmission, though Alfred Horner Munro of Canada patented an automatic transmission 14 years before Banker. (Munro's invention relied on the medium of compressed air and therefore lacked power and was never developed commercially.)

Life and career

Oscar Banker was born Asatour Sarafian in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in 1895 to an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Asatour left the Ottoman Empire as a teenager and settled in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. After his arrival in

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mil ...

and subsequent settlement, Asatour Sarafian took up the name Oscar Banker and began working for a shop that specialized in machinery. While working at the machine shop, Banker invented a saw-filing machine. After his first invention, Banker dedicated his life to inventing. When General Motors incorporated the semi-automatic transmission system, the mechanism had many flaws. Oscar Banker proposed an automatic transmission system for the company that would be safer and more durable. After battling for eight years with automobile engineering companies, Banker's proposition was accepted and his automatic transmission was adopted by General Motors. Eventually, Banker came to be known as "the man who made onsumer advocate

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the U ...

." He was also mentioned in Ralph Nader's book ''

Unsafe at Any Speed ''Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile'' is a non-fiction book by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, first published in 1965. Its central theme is that car manufacturers resisted the introduction of safety features ( ...

''. Banker was also noted for his contribution to aviation mechanics. He invented the primary control of the first Sikorsky helicopter. The invention eventually led to the mass production of helicopters during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Banker invented a pneumatic inoculation gun. Banker's wife heard on the television that military surgeon Dr. Robert Hingson suggested such a mechanism, and she told her husband. Banker ultimately patented the gun in 1968. The gun was accepted by the Med-E-Jet company in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It had the ability to administer 2,000 shots an hour. The gun was used throughout the world. When Grenada suffered an epidemic, Med-E-Jet issued many of Banker's pneumatic inoculation guns. On August 2, 1979, Grenada issued a postage stamp to commemorate his achievement. Bob Hull has published Oscar H. Banker's memoirs titled ''Dreams and Wars of an American Inventor: An Immigrant's Romance'' in 1983. In his memoirs Banker writes: "America is yet the greatest country existing for opportunity, for achievement and if a person can endure the hardships, ridicule, rebuffs, whatever and keep on going! That is what counts. And absolutely nothing else." Oscar Banker had a son named Oscar Banker Jr. Oscar Banker died in

in 1979 at the age of 83.

Notable patents

*Band Saw Sharpener U.S. Patent Number 1,634,281, filing date: 3 March 1924, issue date: 5 July 1927. *Change Speed Transmission U.S. Patent Number 1,985,884, filing date: 14 December 1932, issue date: 1 January 1935. *Change Speed Transmission Mechanism U.S. Patent Number 2,198,072, filing date: 31 May 1934, issue date: 23 April 1940. *Automatic Transmission U.S. Patent 2,199,095, filing date: 18 October 1934, issue date: 30 April 1940. *Gun Type Inoculator U.S. Patent Number 3,518,990, filing date: 2 May 1968, issue date: 7 July 1970. *Self-cleaning Apparatus for Purifying Sea Water by Distillation U.S. Patent Number 2,735,807, filing date: 20 October 1951, issue date: 21 February 1956. *Change-Speed Gearing for Aircraft Propellers U.S. Patent Number 2,348,716, filing date: 15 May 1941, issue date: 16 May 1944. *Power-steering Mechanism U.S. Patent Number 2,977,813, filing date: 13 April 1955, issue date: 4 April 1961. *Relief Valve for High Pressures U.S. Patent Number 2,989,072, filing date: 24 April 1959, issue date: 20 June 1961. *Automatic Light Switch and Battery Disconnect U.S. Patent Number 3,963,941, filing date: 16 April 1975, issue date: 15 June 1976. *Inking Mechanism for Multicolor Printing Press U.S. Patent Number 2,022,840, filing date: 7 July 1927, issue date: 3 December 1935.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banker, Oscar H. 1895 births 1979 deaths People from Chicago Armenian inventors Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Automatic transmission tradenames Survivors of the Hamidian massacres 20th-century American inventors American people of Armenian descent