Times Past On this day 49 years ago, The Canberra Times reported on a 45-year-old former drover who was selected as Australian Inventor of the Year on the TV show What'll They Think of Next? for his invention of the "cycloidal variable-ratio transmission". Included in his winnings was a car fitted with an automatic transmission, ironically the very kind of machinery which his invention would make obsolete. His invention was the result of nine years' work, many frustrations and dead ends, and about $20,000. READ MORE | 