Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-14
Gyroscopes and Gravity
BY GARRETT p. sERvIsS

| says: II would like to have you
give an explanation of the gyro-
scope. My contention is that it
| neutraliZes attraction and repul-
sion. No one agrees with me. but
1 make the bold assertion that there
is no such thing as gravity"
The gyroscope happens to afford
one of the very best possible proofs
that there is such thing as gravity.
The gyroscope happens to afford
one of the very best possible proofs
that there is such thing as gravity.
Gravity must be either push or a
pull, and the tendency of thinkers
on the subject has always been to
regard it as a push. but nobody
knows just how the pushing is done.
The results, however, are unquestion-
able.
The so-called law of gravitation
is based upon the observed effects
of some force which, when We con-
fine our attention to what goes on
among our immediate surroundings,
is found to be directed toward the
center of the earth. This pull or
push, which forces or attracts all
objects toward the earth's center is
called gravity.
To show how the gyroscope affords
evidence of the continued existence
of gravity, even when it seems to
"neutralize" the attraction, it is only
necessary to consider the behavior of
in ordinary toy gyroscope when its
wheel has been set spinning.
If you rest one end of the long
axle running through the center of
the spinning wheel on a support, the
wheel seems to be endowed with a
magic power to suspend itself in the
air. 1t holds it's axle horizontal, al
though the outer end of that axle has
no support, and it carries it's own
weight as If the earth had ceased to
attract it. But mark that it does
not stand fast. 1t circles around the
point of suspension on which one end
of the axle rests.
This circling around. or "preces-
sion',' is proof that gravity is still
acting upon the wheel. But instead
of forcing the wheel to fall toward
the ground it compels it to move on
ward. If you prevent the wheel from
thus moving it will Immediately fall.
Gravity has been neutralized or de
stroyed, but its apparent line of ac-
tion has simply been diverted.
1t is impossible to give here even
an elementary mathematical analysis
gyroscope, or of any body that is
spinning rapidly around a fixed axis,
! hut some of the effects are familiar
to every boy old enough to spin a
top for a top is a simple form of
gyroscope and a bicycle is another.
\ most delightful little book on
this subject, a s interesting as it is
clear, is Prof. John Perry's Spin
| ming Tops" Prof Perry was one of
those too rare scientists who had a
sympathetic side for. the ordinary
man, woman and child.
Now, with regard to gravity itself,
while nobody knows what it is, it's
existence, as a force directed toward
the earth's center has been recognized
| from time immemorial. Newton did
| not discover 1t, he only made math-
| ematical statement of the way it acts;
Calico did not discover it, he only
| experimental with it more intelli-
gently than had been done before.
There are many ways to overcome
gravity but none to neutralize it
i. e., make it inert When a balloon
| rises against gravity it does not neu-
| tralize gravity, it simply overcomes
its downward force by means of a
superior upward force, but gravity
continues to act on the balloon all
| the time. Even If a projectile were
shot away from the earth with suffi
cient velocity to free it from the con-
| troll of gravity so that it would never
| fall back, gravity would not be neu-
| traliZed.
a curious example of the operation
| of two opposite forces, one of which
! is Eravity-or in the larger sense
| employed when dealing with attract
| ing bodies outside the earth, gravita-
tion-is furnished by the effect of the
| repulsion of light upon extremely
! minute particles of matter near the
| sun These particles are driven away
from the sun by the pressure of ,he
| light waves, although they never
| cease. to be urged toward the sun by
by the attraction of gravitation. But
| gravitation acting upon the entire
| mass of a particle diminishes in the
same proportion as the cube of the
| diameter of the particle. while Light
| pressure acting solely on the surflcc
diminishes only as the square of the
| diameter.
| Hence it follows that while gravi-
tation may control comparatively
| large body, as the body gets smaller
| the effect of gravitation lessons fast
| er than that of light pressure, sc
that eventually the body may be-
come so small that the control passes
, from gravitation to light-pressure
and then the particle flies away from
the gravitational center, which is al
the same time the center OF enIana-
tion of the light.
1t is believed that the formation
of comets tails is explainable In this
way. But in no case 1oes one of the
| forces neutralize the other. Both
continue to act, and the body acted
upon moves in the. direction Impress
ed by the greater force, with n vclo-
city determined by the algcbraic diff
| ference between the torces.