Wikipedia

Elmer Ambrose Sperry

Elmer Ambrose Sperry Sr.(October 12, 1860 – June 16, 1930) was an Americaninventorandentrepreneur,most famous for construction, two years afterHermann Anschütz-Kaempfe,of thegyrocompassand as founder of theSperry Gyroscope Company.[3]He was known as the "father of modern navigation technology".[4]

Elmer Ambrose Sperry Sr.
Born(1860-10-12)October 12, 1860
Cincinnatus, New York
DiedJune 16, 1930(1930-06-16)(aged 69)
Brooklyn, New York
NationalityAmerican
EducationCornell University
Known forgyroscopic compasses
SpouseZula Augusta Goodman (1860–1929) (m. 1887–1929)
ChildrenHelen M. Sperry (1889–Oct 1977)
Edward Goodman Sperry(1890–1945)[1]
Lawrence Burst Sperry(1892–1923)
Elmer Ambrose Sperry, Jr.(1894–1968)[2]
Parent(s)Stephen Decatur Sperry (1825–1889)
Mary Burst (1839–1860)
AwardsJohn Fritz Medal(1927)
Elliott Cresson Medal(1929)
Signature

Sperry's compasses and stabilizers were adopted by theUnited States Navyand used in both world wars. He also worked closely with Japanese companies and the Japanese government and was honored after his death with a volume of reminiscences published in Japan.[5]

Early life

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Sperry was born inCincinnatus, New York,on October 12, 1860, to Stephen Decatur Sperry and Mary Burst. His mother died the next day, from complications from his birth.[6]

He was ofEnglish ancestry.His family had been in what is now the Northeastern United States since the 1600s, and his earliest American ancestor was an English colonist named Richard Sperry (born 1606).[3]

Sperry spent three years at theState Normal SchoolinCortland, New York,then a year atCornell Universityin 1878 and 1879, where he became interested indynamos.[6]He moved toChicago, Illinois,early in 1880 and soon after founded theSperry Electric Company.[3]He married Zula Augusta Goodman (1860-1929) in Chicago, Illinois on June 28, 1887.

Career

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Early inventions

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In 1887, Sperry created a system to bring electricity into coal mines, heating the copper wires to prevent corrosion.[6]This system allowed him to bring self-designed mining equipment deep below the surface, to greatly increase the production of coal. In 1888 the Sperry Electric Machinery Mining Company was founded.[6]

In 1890, Sperry formed theSperry Electric Railway Company.[6]Here he used ideas from the electric trains sold by his mining company to create electric trolleys in large, hilly cities in Ohio and Pennsylvania.[6]While working with this company, Sperry designed anelectric automobile,which led to Sperry patenting ideas that would be later used in the development of portablelead acid batteries.[6]In 1896, he drove his car in Paris, making it the first American-made car in Paris.[7]In 1894,General Electricbought the railway company and its associated patents.[6]

In 1900 Sperry established anelectrochemicallaboratory atWashington, D.C.,where he and his associate,Clifton P. Townshend,developed a process for making purecaustic sodaand discovered a process for recoveringtinfrom scrap metal.

Work with gyroscopes

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Sperry's stabilizing gyroscope installed in theUSSHenderson

After experiencing seasickness on an Atlantic voyage in 1898, Sperry started to work on incorporating a largegyroscopeinto a ship to lessen the effect of waves on the ship.[6][8]His gyroscope-stabilized ship differed from others at the time by having a sensor built in to the system to detect the first signs of a wave that the system would have to work to mitigate.[8]In 1911, Sperry worked with the US Navy to incorporate his gyroscopic stabilizer, which greatly reduced major roll of the ship, into Navy ships.[8]While effective, Sperry's gyrostabilizer never was widely sold because of its expense, both in installation and maintenance.[6]

Sperry found another use for his gyroscopes in 1908.[6]Magnetic compasseson steel battleships at the time had issues with maintainingmagnetic northwith the variations of the magnetic field they experienced.[6]Working with Hannibal C. Ford, Sperry began work on a gyrocompass to replace the magnetic compass.[6]In 1910 he founded theSperry Gyroscope CompanyinBrooklyn, New Yorkon the basis of this innovation.[6]His first navigational gyroscope was tested that same year inUSSDelaware(BB-28).After successful tests, Sperry's gyrocompass was soon being installed on American, British, French, Italian, and Russian naval crafts.[6]DuringWorld War I,the importance of the gyrocompass increased as the compass was adapted to control the steering of a ship to automatically hold a steady line.[6]

Aircraft improvements

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Aircraft gyrocompass built by Sperry

In 1913, working with his sonLawrence Burst Sperry,Sperry created a gyro that could control theelevatorsandaileronsof an aircraft through a series ofservomechanisms.[6]Sperry successfully implemented his gyrostablizer technology, formerly thought to be only applicable to large ships, because of their high weight, into aircraft.[6]In June 1914, Sperry and his son won theAero Club of France's competition to build a safer aircraft, demonstrating the stabilizer with his son doing a "no-hands" flight past the judges.[6]He also was awarded aFranklin Institute Medalin the same year.[3]This gyrostabilization system, while never implemented on a massive scale, laid the foundation for his son'sautopilotsystem.[6]

In1916,Sperry joinedPeter Hewittto develop theHewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane,one of the first successful precursors of theUAV.

In 1917, Sperry solved the issue of magnetic compasses indicating the opposite position when an aircraft is turning, inventing the Gyro Turn Indicator.[6]This turn indicator was later modified into what is known now as theTurn and Slip Indicator.[6]With aDirectional GyroandGyro Horizonadded later, Sperry created a core offlight instrumentsthat became standard equipment on all aircraft.[6]

During both world wars, Sperry's company profited from military demand for gyroscopes. His technology was subsequently used in torpedoes, ships, airplanes, and spacecraft. Sperry moved into related devices such asbombsights,fire control,radar,and automated take off and landing.[9]DuringWorld War Ihe worked to create a "flying bomb", and on March 6, 1918, he guided an aerial torpedo for more than half a mile using radio control.[10]

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Elmer Ambrose Sperry demonstrating the operation of a searchlight

Working with the US Navy, Sperry developed a system to control the entire battery of a battleship from an interior room of the ship.[6]This control system used his gyroscopic equipment to correct an individual gun's position based on changes in course of the ship, allowing the entire battery to focused on one point.[6]This control system was installed on all battleships of the United States Navy during World War I.[6]

Sperry was a founding member of the U.S.Naval Consulting Board,1915.[11]

Starting in 1914, Sperry began working with the US Navy to develop higher-power lighting for use with naval turrets.[6]Out of this partnership, Sperry and his team created a new kind ofarc lampthat heated a gas to incandescence, creating a source of light five times brighter than other continuous light sources of the time.[6]In 1918 he produced a high-intensity arc lamp which was used as asearchlightby both theArmyand Navy.

Late life and death

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In 1923, Sperry's son Lawrence died in theEnglish Channelin the crash of an airplane of his own design. In January 1929, Sperry sold his Sperry Gyroscope Company toNorth American Aviation.The following year his wife died, on March 31, inHavana, Cuba.[3]

Sperry died at St. John Hospital inBrooklyn, New York,on June 16, 1930, from complications following the removal ofgallstonessix weeks earlier. He was 69 years old.[3]

Memberships

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Sperry was a member of the following groups:[3]

Awards

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Companies

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Legacy

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References

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  1. ^"Edward G. Sperry, An Industrialist. Executive of Products Firm He Founded With Father, the Gyroscope Inventor, Dies. Designed Ship Stabilizers. Held Several Directorships".The New York Times.November 8, 1945.RetrievedDecember 21,2012.Edward Goodman Sperry, vice president, treasurer and a director of Sperry Products, Inc., Hoboken,...
  2. ^"Elmer Sperry Jr., Inventor, Was 74. Son of the Founder of Gyroscope Company Dies".The New York Times.Associated Press. December 24, 1968.RetrievedDecember 21,2012.Elmer Ambrose Sperry, Jr., a pioneer in gyroscope development and son of the founder of the Sperry Gyroscope Company, died here Saturday at the age... He was born May 9, 1894, in Cleveland, a son of Elmer Sperry, Sr. and Zula...
  3. ^abcdefghij"Elmer Sperry Dies. Famous Inventor".The New York Times.June 17, 1930.RetrievedDecember 21,2012.Elmer A. Sperry, inventor, died yesterday morning at St. John's Hospital, Brooklyn, from complications which set in after he had recovered from an operation for gallstones six weeks ago. He was in his seventieth year.
  4. ^"Who Made America: Elmer Sperry".PBS.
  5. ^Durgin, Russell and Kawaguchi, Zenichi, "Dr. Sperry As We Knew Him" (1931, Nichi-Bei Press). This volume of reminiscences by the Japanese engineers and diplomats who knew him was published in a bilingual text.
  6. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabNational Academy Biographical Memoirs - Vol. XXVIII.National Academies Press. 1954. pp. 223–260.
  7. ^"Elmer Sperry Dies; Famous Inventor".The New York Times.RetrievedOctober 28,2018.
  8. ^abcBrown, David E. (2003).Inventing modern America: from the microwave to the mouse.B MIT Press.ISBN0262523493.OCLC746926958.
  9. ^"Who Made America? – Innovators – Elmer Sperry".pbs.org.RetrievedOctober 28,2018.
  10. ^Benson, Alvin K. (2010).Great lives from history. Inventors & inventions.Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press.ISBN9781587655296.OCLC496519422.
  11. ^"DANIELS NAMES NAVAL ADVISORS; Announces Makeup of Board of Inventors Headed by Thomas A. Edison. COOPER HEWITT A MEMBER Hudson Maxim, Henry A. Wise Wood, Alfred Craven, and F.J. Sprague Other New Yorkers. NOTED ENGINEERS TO SERVE Chemists, Aeronautical Experts, Inventors, and Authorities on Explosives Also Picked. DANIELS NAMES NAVAL ADVISORS".The New York Times.September 13, 1915.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedApril 13,2019.
  12. ^"Institute and Related Activities"(PDF).Journal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.XLII:1369. December 1923.doi:10.1109/JoAIEE.1923.6593440.Alternate Link
  13. ^Society, New York Electrical (1912).Transactions of the New York Electrical Society...
  14. ^"Elmer Sperry".nasonline.org.RetrievedOctober 28,2018.
  15. ^"Elmer Ambrose Sperry".The Franklin Institute.January 11, 2014.RetrievedMarch 17,2019.
  16. ^ab"Collier 1911–1919 Recipients - NAA: National Aeronautic Association".naa.aero.RetrievedMarch 17,2019.
  17. ^"Aviation Honors Awarded at Banquet".Buffalo Evening News.Buffalo, New York. January 15, 1915. p. 4 – via Newspapers.
  18. ^"Holley Medal".The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.RetrievedMarch 17,2019.
  19. ^"John Fritz Medal Past Recipients".American Association of Engineering Societies.March 29, 2015.RetrievedMarch 17,2019.
  20. ^"Elmer A. Sperry".The Franklin Institute.January 11, 2014.RetrievedMarch 17,2019.

Further reading

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