The Self Changing or Pre-Selective Epicyclic Gear by Arthur Elton, Shell-Mex and BP Ltd.

Even after many years of collecting ephemera there is still the joy of a remarkable find whilst browsing through a shop; even allowing for the rapidly dwindling number of secondhand bookshops even antique centres can still turn up the odd item. So, I was very surprised to see this brochure in a pile of ‘ephemera’.

Shell-Mex and BP Ltd, the petrol and oil marketing concern, were well known in the 1930s for the quality of their publicity and advertising. The unavowedly modernist approach was due to the company’s advertising manager, Jack Beddington. This brochure is typical of the approach. Written by Arthur Elton, who authored several technical books and publications for Shell, it looks at the technology behind the “Self Changing or pre-Selective Epicyclic” gearbox and transmission system that had started to be fitted to a number of models of both motor cars and commercial vehicles. The most common type was that known as the “Wilson” after its designer Walter Wilson who in 1928, with backing from John Siddeley of Arnstron Siddeley, set up Improved Gears Ltd., later known as Self-Changing Gears Ltd. In time SCG became a Leyland subsidiary and variations on the transmission and control systems were fitted to a wide range of buses and post-war British Railways diesel-multiple units.

This brochure looks at the technology behind such a gear/gearbox and describes its operation along with various illustrations and diagrams. Spirally bound, the booklet, printed by the Bradford based Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd., is distinguished by the quality of its layout, typography and graphic design, these being remarkable examples of the contemporary movement of modernist design. It was designed and illustrated by Zéró – Hans Schleger, the noted German-Polish typographer and designer who had settled in the UK in 1932 and became one of the most celebrated artists in his field. It uses the ‘Lubrication’ figure that was designed for Shell-Mex and BP by Edward McKnight Kauffer, the American born designer and artist who first came to prominance following early commissions for his work from Frank Pick of London Underground in the immediate post-WW1 year years.

The photographs used are from Maurice Beck, the famous photographer whose work varied from Vogue magazine to montage style posters for London Transport, along with stills from the G.P.O. Film Unit, one of the pioneering and most highly regarded of early documentary film producers that had been set up in 1933 under John Grierson.

The typography features Beton (Bauer, 1930) throughout. Heinrich Jost’s modernist slab serif is used in several styles, including the open and shaded capitals from Beton licht.

All in all the whole brochure is a compendium of modernist British graphic design, typography and designers. Although undated it is mentioned in the 1935/36 edition of Modern Publicity and both the V&A and Birmingham University Libraries give 1934 as a credible date for publication.