Transmission are everywhere in everyday life. They can be found in mechanical devices and machines, like cars, bicycles, clocks and watches, washing machines, mixers and blenders, or vacuum cleaners.

Different ways of transmission

According to the mechanical principle of energy conversion there are several distinguishable types of transmissions:
- belt drives (e.g. vee belt in a car)
- chain drives (e.g. bicycle chain)
- gear drives (e.g. lathe transmission)

Belt and chain drives transmit the rotary motion of a drive wheel to the driven wheel by means of belts or chains. This type of transmission is used to bridge large center distances.

In a belt drive an elastic belt is used for the transmission of the rotary motion. The force transport occurs by traction. The amount of transmittable force depends on the friction being effective between belt and pulley.
The belt is stretched more on the tractive side than on the opposite side. The tractive force increases gradually at the circumference of the driving pulley and decreases again at the circumference of the driven pulley. The extension in the belt behaves the same. The result is, that the speed of the driven pulley is slightly slower than at the drive pulley. This phenomenon is called slippage. It amounts up to about 2% of the drive speed, depending on the load.

In a chain drive, a steel chain serves as a medium to transmit the motion. It is working by form fit, therefore no slippage occurs.

Gear drives transmit rotary motions from one shaft to another by form fit and therefore without slippage. Gears are toothed interlocking wheels. Gear drives are suitable for transmission of very low powers, like in clocks and watches, up to very large powers, such as in rolling mills, depending on design. In addition to the transmission of rotary motion, mostly the speed, torque or rolling direction are changed.

Gear drives can be designed with multiple gear ratios from which the operator can choose. In a manual automotive transmission, typically four, five or six different gear ratios can be selected by using a gear shift.

Automatic transmissions automatically choose the optimal gear ratio for the current speed of the vehicle. They work using hydraulics to select gears.

Rate variety

In the case of mobile phones, a prepaid card is usually bought, which is linked to the mobile phone account. Once money is paid in, i.e. the phone has been topped up, it is possible to make and receive calls. Rates vary from one mobile phone provider to another, so it is always a good idea to compare rates before committing to a particular phone provider. Some offer good rates for people who send text messages frequently, whereas calls are expensive to make, others offer cheap calls with expensive text message rates. Once the credit has been used up, it is usually still possible to receive calls and texts, but in order to be able to make calls and text, it is necessary to top the mobile up with some more credit.

Prepaid cards are also available for landline phones, and are often used abroad to get cheaper call rates. Normally, a toll free number is rung, and via that number users can connect to the service offered via the prepaid phone card. Like with the mobile prepaid cards, this service can be used as long as there is credit left on the card.

Necessary evil

Prepaid credit cards are available for minors or people who are not able to have a credit card, for example due to a bad credit rating. Nowadays it is difficult to buy goods on the internet without owning a credit card or debit card, so these cards can be very useful. They work on the same principle as other prepaid cards. A certain amount of money is paid to be used with the card, and the card owner can then shop normally with this card as if it were a credit card, until the credit has been used up.

Prepaid is an ideal way to control spending and still be able to use services like mobile phones and credit cards.

Heading for progress

Beginning with the invention of the wheel and the domestication of animals used for transportation, engineers pushed the limits of what seemed to be possible further and further away. Followed by the discovery of the entire world through improving sailing ships, the evolution of mobility kept marching on irresistibly. The invention of the steam engine followed and very shortly after that the ‘telephone’ again made the world a bit smaller. The word ‘telephone’ means ‘distant sound’ and made the ability of being actually mobile a bit less important. But still one technical revolution was directly followed by the next one. The breakthrough in aviation brought the ultimate mobility to mankind. Now there was no place on earth that could not be reached and explored. Countries that once were days or weeks away could be travelled to in only a couple of hours and goods, although it has always been preferred to transport them by sea for financial reasons, could be delivered only days after the order had been sent. The world became smaller and smaller which did not result in only positive consequences.

Small world – no limits

Some states could not bear the sudden closeness to potential enemies which always had been ‘further away’ and connived at the fact that the world grew more and more together. In recent years, mobility has become the key ability in almost every part of the everyday life. The inventions of the mobile phone and the mobile internet have become the ones to have the biggest effect on everyday life since the nineteenth century. Decisions, that used to require several weeks of laborious research, can now be made after only few minutes of using worldwide connected search engines. Products, which could have been bought only in a certain country, are just ‘one click away’. After every alleged law of physics has been broken, it is only a matter of time when the next one will be born down.

Sponsorship

Many well known actors and actresses support students from film academies when they undertake first steps in their carreers. Several well-known sponsors have been casted for far less money than usual or even played without any fee at all. The terms of these agreements have very often not been discussed. They often depend on good contacts in the business or the guts to advance a big filmstar with a good script. The supportive actors and actresses know well that the beginner of today can be the star director or cameraman of tomorrow. In many cases, the supporters have also started their carreers under frustrating circumstances and were supported by someone in the beginning. Many low budget films made it into film festivals and into the hearts of the public. Well known actors and directors, cameramen and scriptwriters have started on a low budget. Some of them made it to the top. Being there, they can sometimes rely on unlimited budgets – but the fun of the early days is gone.

Few money but lots of options

A low budget certainly limits the efforts and possibilities that any business offers. On the other hand, it enhances any form of creativity and forces you to improvise. An idea can be gigantic and visionary in its size – but that does not mean that you need gigantic equipment to bring it to life. It might well be useful to think small and big at the same time! The main question in a low budget case is: How can I transport my original idea in a way that does not force me to spend non-existent money on expensive equipment etc. In some cases, a low budget brings you into another country where prices are decidedly lower and your vision can be brought to life with half the budget you’d usually need. In other cases, the low budget has been the main reason why someone had to stretch the realisation of a certain project over several years because he had to work in the times in-between. However: A low budget makes it harder, but certainly not impossible!

First changes

In 2006 Fidel Castro’s brother Raul assumed power temporarily and showed some signs of willingness to reform the country. After Cuba’s economy took another hit during the financial meltdown in 2007-2009 Raul Castro decided to ease the state’s control over the economy and allow Cubans more scope in public life and small business. Furthermore he allowed the import and use of computers and mobile phones which however are still unaffordable to most ordinary people. His most closely watched decision was the release of 52 political prisoners which had been victims of government raids against the opposition in early 2001. The final discharge of the prisoners was mediated by the Catholic church which has been a place of refuge for members of the oppostion.

Possibilites for the future

Cuba’s future will not only depend on the leadership’s vision and willingness to reform the country but also on the EU’s and the USA’s readiness to revoke its trade embargo. US president Barack Obama has showed some signs of willingness to make advances towards Cuba’s leadership but he faces strong headwind from exile Cubans which are heavily represented in the state of Florida. However opinion polls show that the Cuban community in the US is more and more open to ease sanctions on their home country as long as Cuba’s leadership shows the willingness to respect human rights and losens their grip on the opposition and the economy. Still the Castro brothers make little attempts to embrace democracy or the free market.

Discovery of unexpected dimension

In order to render all of these exceptional novelties possible, the first telephone had to be invented, which eventually happened in 1861, when the German teacher Philipp Reis first presented his inconceivably innovative invention to scientists in Frankfurt am Main. However, at that time nobody realised the unbelievable and revolutionary opportunities the telephone would be able to provide the world with as a means of global communication. As the first telephone was only able to transmit sounds in a very basic way, it did not yet facilitate the clear transmission of human sounds. Therefore, the improved version of this gadget was then patent-registered in 1876 by the American scientist William Graham Bell, who is today considerably more well-known than his predecessor Reis.

Needless to say, the telephone levelled the way to the cellular phone, whose first versions were already invented in the 1920s. Just after that, the first car telephones reigned the European continent and finally in 1983, the first commercial mobile phone was invented by Rudy Krolopp, the designer of Motorola telephones. With the development of national and international phone networks in the 1980s, there was nothing to stop the course of technology in connecting everyone everywhere at any time.

Boundless communication

Something with which most people are rather unacquainted with is the fact that the last stroke of genius of world wide communication so far has actually to be recognised as the brilliant thought of one single man – the American MIT – scientist Tim Berners-Lee. In fact, this professor has invented the World Wide Web in the 1990s and made it possible to access websites and information in general from all over the world online.

To put it in a nutshell, the communicational era has apparently just started its road to success and it is quite likely that all of these revolutionary inventions compose the base of all future technologies yet to come.