Classic/Antique Car Repair: 1930s Transmissions, mid thirties, hydramatic transmission

Question
Howdy Brad. Can you tell me what the "typical" (most common) transmission would have been during the 1930s? I'm interested in how it would have been operated from the driver's perspective.  Thanks for your time!

Answer
By the thirties the industry had pretty much settled on the three speed manual transmission with the shifter on the floor. The H pattern was used with reverse in the upper left leg of the H, first lower left, neutral on the cross bar, second in the upper right, and high gear on the lower right. In the early thirties most transmissions needed to be double clutched to shift. That was stopping the gear shift motion in neutral between shifts and quickly letting the clutch out and then back in again to match gear speed and then complete the shift. By the mid thirties most transmission were equipped with syncronizers on the gears eliminating double clutching. Also by the end of the thirties most car makes had moved the shift lever to the steering column, Hudson and Cord were using remote shift devices, and Oldsmobile was into the Hydramatic Transmission.
Brad