Richard Spikes though little is written about his personal life, education, or childhood what is know is that he invented many thing that would be welcomed by many major companies. The first invention credited to him was the railroad semaphore invented in 1906. But his more famous invention was the beer keg tap that was purchased by Milwaukee brewing company. His creation of the automatic gear shift would revolutionize the automobile industry. " The automatic gear shirt is an arrangement of gears, brakes, clutches, a fluid drive, and governing devices that automatically changes the speed ratio between the engine and the wheels of an automobile. Since its introduction in 1939, the fully automatic transmission has become optional or standard equipment on most passenger cars. When the transmission is in the drive position, the driver has only to depress the accelerator pedal, and as the car gathers speed the transmission will shift automatically through its entire forward range of gears from low to high (ratios of the speeds of drive shaft and engine shaft) until the two shafts are directly connected through the oil in the fluid drive, which may be either a two-element fluid coupling or a three-element torque converter. When the car loses speed the transmission automatically shifts back from high to low gear". He sold this invention for 100,00.00 dollars, which was a large amount of money in the 1930's.
             His many contributions include the automatic car washer, beer keg tap, and the automatic shoe since chair. Richard Spikes last invention was the automatic safety brake. By the time he started creating the brake he was starting to go blind. By the time of it's completion her was deemed legally blind. The device would soon be used in almost every school bus in the nation. Though is recognition has been slow in coming it is evident that the impact that he has on this nation is lasting. Richard spikes died in 1962 ...