The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-07
"HE wonders of the gyroscope were
 hinted at by Elmer A. Sperry at u tJ,a y,,aatipe of tho Naval Architects

lHHE wonders of the gyroscope were hinted at by Elmer A. Sperry at | x the meeting of the Naval Architects and Marine Engineers at the Engineering Societies building at g West Thirty-ninth street, recently. He told how ships could be made to keep an even keel in heavy sea and how the gyroscope force was ap- piled to the compass.
 The meeting was the second-day session of the annual gathering of the naval men | for the presentation of their scientific pa pers on a wide range of subjects. Besides the gyroscope such subjects were dis cussed as a reduction of loss by fire aboard ship, the use of produced gas as motive power and coaling warships. "When the motive power of vessels changed from an upsetting force (the saiD to one almost exclusively of forward thrust" said MT. Sperry, "the design of ships underwent quite radical changes in connection with the lines affecting the stability, decreasing this factor and fav- bring decreased resistance, aiding the at tainment of higher speeds. Now that sta bility may be imparted to a structure of naturally small fighting movement we are on the eve of eve nmore radical changes in design.
 'The problem is to hold the ship from rolling by neutralizing with the gyro- scope each disturbing influence as it reaches the ship, availing ourselves of all the air possible through the design of the hull and the disposition of the masses l. A great many ships as they now stand could with profit utilize the gyroscope steadying gear, which is at present avail able, and some important installations are now being contemplated"
 | MT. Sperry told of seeing Russian war ships constructed in Hamburg which were | furnished with $50 to 400 tons of water slushing back and forth periodically in hugh tanks to counteract the roll of the ship, so as to make it possible to operate the guns on level The movement of the water has to be timed to the roll of the sea, and when 1t gets out of time it turns into menace.
 s"The gyroscope, on the other hand, is i not limited to any particular period of
 the boat; it simply responds to what e,-or motion the ship has, synchronous or
 on-synchronous," said MT. Sperry. 'The
 question is often asked: Why is a gyro-
 scope better than moving weight in a
 ship for roll quenching? Every pound
 in the rotating mass of the gyro can
 be made to do the work of from 150 to
 200 pounds and directed in any desired line or plane, whereas when we use water
 or any other form of moving weight each
 pound represents pound only, and can
 do the work of only a pound and only
 in vertical direction"
 MT. Sperry gave very interesting
 though strictly scientific demonstration of
 the peculiar faculty possessed by the gy- roscope which made 1t possible to trans form energy ''around corner" He com
 pared ship without a gyroscope to a ship with one. The model ship in a
 smooth surface is tilted to an angle of
 25 degrees and then allowed to rock itself
 to an even keel. The diagram showed that the ship with the active gyroscope
 made about three rocks in each direction
 and then suddenly became so steady that
 a man could shave or play billiards, while the ship without it rocked laboriously to and fro, taking long time to 'let the
 old cat die."
 MT. Sperry praised the work of Capt. D. w. Taylor in the Washington navy yard in respect to the gyro, and said that his treatise on the subject was of im-
 mense value toward the understanding
 and practical application of gyroscopic
 energy.
 The gyroscopic principle applied to the
 compass has proved invaluable. MT.