Banker (born Asatour Sarafian; May 31, 1895 – January 1979) was an Armenian American inventor who patented a number of works, including an automatic transmission for automobiles, the needleless inoculation gun, the primary controls of the first Sikorsky helicopter, and power steering.
He is considered by some as the "father of automatic transmission." He is accredited as the inventor of the first practical automatic transmission, though Alfred Horner Munro of Canada patented an automatic transmission 14 years before Banker.
(Munro's invention relied on the medium of compressed air and therefore lacked power and was never developed commercially.)