Fun fact: the torque converter was invented a few years before the automatic transmission - and some cars were sold with a manual transmission and a torque converter. With only two or three forward gears, they found most of the customers would leave the car in the top gear and just accelerate slowly ...
The Buick Dynaflow was almost entirely reliant on a multiple-element torque converter, in front of a 2-speed manual similar to the Powerglide. Slow and inefficient, but very smooth.
