_Boston, Mass._
60 VIRGINIA STREET
_Great Lakes District_
828 GUARDIAN BUILDING
Cleveland, Ohio
_San Francisco, Cal._
52 DAVIS STREET
_Main European Office_: THE SPERRY GYROSCOPE COMPANY, Ltd., 15 Victoria
Street, London, S. W. 1
—REPRESENTATIVES—
_France_
COMTE A. DeCHAMBURE
37, Rue Bergere
Paris
GEORGES BREITTMAYER
20, Rue Taitbout
Paris
F. J. DELVES
20, Rue Taitbout
Paris
_Spain_
F. WEYDMANN
Victoria 2
Madrid
_Holland_
TECHNISCH BUREAU VAN LEENT
Nassaukade 17
Ryswyk
_Italy_
F. P. CAMPERIO
Via Bagutta 24
Milan
_Sweden_
GRAHAM BROS.
Stockholm
_Denmark_
C. KNUDSEN
11 Kobmagagade
Copenhagen
_Norway_
OTTO PLATOU
Skovveien 39
Christiania
_Japan_
MITSUI & CO., LTD.
Tokyo
MITSUBISHI ZOSEN KAISHA, LTD.
Tokyo
(For Ship Stabilizer)
_Chili, Peru & Bolivia_
WESSEL DUVAL & CO.
25 Broad Street
New York
[Illustration: An inflated ox-skin Balsa of earliest times.]
THE
SPERRY GYROSCOPE
COMPANY
[Illustration]
_Manufacturers of_
GYRO-COMPASSES GYRO SHIP STABILIZERS
GUN-FIRE CONTROL APPARATUS NAVIGATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
NAVAL AND COMMERCIAL SEARCHLIGHTS
[Illustration: The ancient Egyptians built boats of rushes.]
_Putting the Earth to Work_
When the earth was thrown off from the sun and commenced rotating about
its own axis, there was developed a force generated by the earth’s
rotation. For countless centuries this force has been at work, but no
one has ever been able to harness it to serve the purposes of man. But
now, through the efforts of Foucault, Hopkins, Sperry, and other noted
scientists, this force has been put to work. It serves to direct a
thousand ships in their courses.
Of course, this is not the only force which has been used to guide
ships. Since 1297 A.D. mariners have used magnetic attraction as the
force by which to guide their vessels. For centuries seafaring men
sailed only in wooden ships, and were therefore satisfied with the
magnetic compass. Then came steam and steel. Navigation then instead of
being a hit or miss game of chance became the exact art of directing a
ship by the shortest possible course in the quickest possible time.
Now that ships cost millions of dollars to build and thousands of
dollars per day to operate, time has become the most essential element
in navigation. The development of ships from the sailing vessel to
the ocean greyhound has been one of the marvels of modern times.
But the development of the magnetic compass has not kept pace with
the development of the ships which rely upon it. Many of the great
trans-Atlantic liners are guided by practically the same type of
compass as that which Columbus used on the _Santa Maria_. The compass
on the wooden _Santa Maria_ pointed to magnetic north with a fair
degree of accuracy, but the compass on the steel greyhounds must
contend with many distractions.
For years magnetic compass designers spent their efforts to produce
compensating devices that would annul the effects of all external
influences, so that the magnetic compass would be free to indicate only
the direction of the earth’s magnetic lines. Very little has been done
to improve the compass itself—it still depends upon the attraction of
the Magnetic North Pole. The Sperry Gyro-Compass differs in principle
from any other compass. It is not magnetic. It derives its directive
force, not from magnetic attraction, but from the earth’s rotation.
[Illustration: Bearing Repeater on Upper Bridge.]
[Illustration: The Vikings crossed the Atlantic in open ships.]
There is certainly a crying need for this new type of compass. A ship
now-a-days costs millions of dollars and carries cargoes usually equal
in value to that of the ship. It has been estimated that inaccuracies
in navigation attending the use of the magnetic compass cause a yearly
loss of ships to the value of $70,000,000. No estimate can possibly be
made on the value of lives lost on these ships.
Millions of dollars are spent each year on charts, lighthouses, buoys,
geodetic and hydrographic surveys, and on compilation of notices to
mariners. Notwithstanding all of these, ships must ultimately depend
upon their compasses for their safety and efficiency of navigation.
Inaccuracies in navigation can be eliminated by the use of a reliable
compass. The Sperry Gyro-Compass puts the earth to work. It utilizes a
force which is as unvarying as the law of gravity, a force that cannot
be interfered with by any other influence.