Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Gyrocompass
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== History == The first, not yet practical,<ref name=hee>{{cite book|pages=34–37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DN-9m2jSo8YC&pg=PA37|title=How experiments end|isbn=978-0-226-27915-2|last1=Galison|first1=Peter|year=1987| publisher=University of Chicago Press |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302022112/http://books.google.com/books?id=DN-9m2jSo8YC&pg=PA37|archive-date=2012-03-02}}</ref> form of gyrocompass was patented in 1885 by Marinus Gerardus van den Bos.<ref name=hee /> A usable gyrocompass was invented in 1906 in Germany by [[Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe]], and after successful tests in 1908 became widely used in the German Imperial Navy.<ref name=an /><ref name=hee /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://downloads.german-pavilion.com/downloads/pdf/exhibitor_24199.pdf |title=Standard 22: Anschütz Gyro Compass System |access-date=2012-02-19 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629014757/http://downloads.german-pavilion.com/downloads/pdf/exhibitor_24199.pdf |archive-date=2015-06-29 }} Standard 22 Anschütz Gyro Compass <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> System: Gyro Compass <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> Technology <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> for over than <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> 100 years</ref> Anschütz-Kaempfe founded the company [[Raytheon Anschütz|Anschütz & Co.]] in [[Kiel]], to mass produce gyrocompasses; the company is today Raytheon Anschütz GmbH.<ref>[https://www.ihk-schleswig-holstein.de/news/ihk_kiel12955/Hermann-Anschuetz-Kaempfe/3405026 Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Schleswig-Holstein] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222061044/https://www.ihk-schleswig-holstein.de/news/ihk_kiel12955/Hermann-Anschuetz-Kaempfe/3405026 |date=2017-02-22 }} Retrieved on February 22, 2017.</ref> The gyrocompass was an important invention for nautical navigation because it allowed accurate determination of a vessel’s location at all times regardless of the vessel’s motion, the weather and the amount of steel used in the construction of the ship.<ref name="maritime.org" /> In the United States, [[Elmer Ambrose Sperry]] produced a workable gyrocompass system (1908: {{US patent|1,242,065}}), and founded the [[Sperry Corporation|Sperry Gyroscope Company]]. The unit was adopted by the U.S. Navy (1911<ref name=l />), and played a major role in World War I. The Navy also began using Sperry's "Metal Mike": the first gyroscope-guided autopilot steering system. In the following decades, these and other Sperry devices were adopted by steamships such as the {{RMS|Queen Mary}}, airplanes, and the warships of World War II. After his death in 1930, the Navy named the {{USS|Sperry}} after him. Meanwhile, in 1913, C. Plath (a Hamburg, Germany-based manufacturer of navigational equipment including sextants and magnetic compasses) developed the first gyrocompass to be installed on a commercial vessel. C. Plath sold many gyrocompasses to the Weems’ School for Navigation in Annapolis, MD, and soon the founders of each organization formed an alliance and became Weems & Plath.<ref>[http://www.weems-plath.com/weems-and-plath-story.php The Invention of Precision Navigational Instruments for Air and Sea Navigation] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718024746/http://www.weems-plath.com/weems-and-plath-story.php |date=2011-07-18 }}, Weems & Plath.</ref> [[File:1889 Gymnote Gyroscope.jpg|thumb|The 1889 Dumoulin-Krebs gyroscope]] Before the success of the gyrocompass, several attempts had been made in Europe to use a gyroscope instead. By 1880, [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|William Thomson]] (Lord Kelvin) tried to propose a [[gyrostat]] to the British Navy. In 1889, [[Arthur Krebs]] adapted an electric motor to the Dumoulin-Froment marine gyroscope, for the French Navy. That gave the [[French submarine Gymnote (Q1)|''Gymnote'']] submarine the ability to keep a straight line while underwater for several hours, and it allowed her to [http://rbmn.free.fr/Gymnote_Blocus_1890.jpg force a naval block] in 1890. In 1923 [[Max Schuler]] published his paper containing his observation that if a gyrocompass possessed [[Schuler tuning]] such that it had an oscillation period of 84.4 minutes (which is the orbital period of a notional satellite orbiting around the Earth at sea level), then it could be rendered insensitive to lateral motion and maintain directional stability.<ref>{{citation |title=Introduction to avionics systems |first=R. P. G. |last=Collinson |publisher=Springer |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4020-7278-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbKkojYNjecC&pg=RA1-PA293 |pages=293 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707074016/http://books.google.com/books?id=rbKkojYNjecC&pg=RA1-PA293&lpg=RA1-PA293 |archive-date=2014-07-07 }}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)