Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1936-09-25
TODAY AND
TOMORROW
Frank PARKER STocKBRIDoE

um the big Corliss engine which
was built for the Centennial Exhi-
birion at Philadelphia in 1876. My
real education began when my
father took me, as a boy of six, to
rbe Centennial; and of all the
things | saw there the Corliss engine
stands out first in my memory.
That was partly because George
H. Corliss, its inventor and builder,
was a friend of my fathers and I
had been at his house in Providence.
But mainly it was because it was
the biggest piece of moving mach
inery l had ever seen, with its 80
foot flywheel revolving SO smooth
" that there was no vibration at
all.
/ remember that my father took
a silver dollar out of bis pocket and
stood it on its edge on the horizon
tai FRANC of the engine, and it was
not shaken off.
The Corliss engine. with 1.4Oo
horsepower, would seem like a toy
TODAY, but it was the greatest tri-
umph, in mans attempt to har-
ness natural forces that had ever
been achieved, 80 years ago.
BUTTER =. a statue
1t amuses me to hear people in
the East speak of states like Iowa,
Minnesota and Wisconsin as if they
were still raw, unsettled prairie
country. I read somewhere recently
an expression of surprise at the in
formation that Minnesota produc-
es more dairy products than any
other state, as if that were some
thing new.
One of my keenest memories of
the 1876 Centennial is that of the
Butter Woman" a figure Of her
ole size, carved out of butter and
standing in a refrigerated glass case
in the Agricultural Building of the
Centennial. That was Minnesota's
chief product 50 years ago, as it is
today.
That was another chapter in my
youthful education. There's moth
ing like a fair-whether it's a
Worlds Fair or just a county fair
to impress r%ealitie indelibly upon
children's minds.
LIGHT Sperry
One of the things shown at the
Centennial which I remember see
ing was Professor Bells telephone.
One l do not remember was c.. F.
Brush's electric arc light. But a boy
ten years older than I saw the arc
light, went back to his home in
Cortland, N. Y, determined to
study electrical engineering, found
a friendly and able teacher at Cor
nell University, and at 10 he had
set up an electric lighting system
in his home town, the first in the
world.
1 got to know Elmer Sperry very
we'll in later years. He was one of
the great pioneers in electrical in
vention, and in the practical appli-
cation of his inventions.
Sperry got the inspiration for
his life work from Americas first
great Worlds Fair. I hope the
New York Worlds Fair of 1889
will stimulate a fresh crop of
young geniuses to make the world
of the future different from the
present.
TOY principle
Another thing l remember from
the Philadelphia Centennial, be-
sides the majetic beard of Dom
Pedro III, the last Emperor of
Brazil, is a toy my father bought
me, a gyroscopic top. A gyroscope
is a flywheel whose axis is free to
revolve in any direction. 1t %resists
any effort to make it change its
plane of rotation.
Elmer Sperry bought one of
of those Centennial gyroscopic!
tops. For years he studied it at in
tervals until he had mastered its,
underlying principle, which no.
body had ever put On paper. Then
his practical mind sought practical
applications for the gyroscopic
principle.
The result? Every important
ship aflooat today is steered by
metal Nike" which is a Spery gy-
roscope attached to the helm. The
Sperry gyroscopic compass gives
the mariner the true North instead
of the magnetic pole. Sperry cry