The Inventor Asatur Sarafian (Oscar Banker)

Asatur Sarafian was an Armenian American who created the automatic transmission. The patent bears the name of the American Oscar Banker, but his real name was Asatur Sarafian. For about 8 years he fought the car manufacturers to defend his authorship. In the end his proposal was accepted, and General Motors, which until then had fitted its cars with a semi-automatic transmission with many shortcomings, became the first to use automatic transmissions. The invention was patented in 1935.

Sarafian was born in 1895. His family survived the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire and moved to Chicago, where he changed his name and found work in a workshop. He also invented two tools for workshops: a filing machine and a grease gun for lubricating parts.

The photograph shows an elderly man in glasses and a suit, holding an envelope and looking at a display board with newspaper clippings and English inscriptions.