Sperry, Elmer

Sperry, Elmer (Ambrose)

(born Oct. 12, 1860, Cortland, N.Y., U.S.—died June 16, 1930, Brooklyn, N.Y.) U.S. inventor and industrialist. He opened his own factory in Chicago at the age of 20 to make dynamos and arc lamps. He designed an electrical industrial locomotive and motor transmission machinery for streetcars and later made electric automobiles powered by his patented battery. He invented processes for salvaging tin and producing white lead and for manufacturing fuse wire. His greatest inventions sprang from the gyroscope (until then considered only a toy), which, once properly aligned, always points to true north. His gyrocompass was first installed on the battleship Delaware in 1911. He extended the gyro principle to guidance of torpedoes, to gyropilots for the steering of ships and for stabilizing airplanes, and finally to a ship stabilizer. In all, he founded eight manufacturing companies and took out more than 400 patents.

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Sperry, Elmer (Ambrose) (1860–1930) engineer, inventor; born in Cortland, N.Y. A lumber merchant's son, he attended the State Normal School at Cortland and Cornell before founding the Sperry Electric Company (1880), the first of his eight companies, in Chicago. This firm manufactured dynamos and arc lamps. Over the years he invented and produced a wide range of items, including mining machinery, street car equipment, electric automobiles, an arc searchlight, and an autopilot. He began his most important work, in gyroscope development, in 1896, combining electrical and mechanical elements into devices that stabilized ships and aircraft. His gyrocompass, first installed on the battleship USS Delaware in 1910, soon became standard equipment in the U.S. Navy. He also developed an electrolytic process for obtaining pure caustic soda from salt and a technique for recovering tin from old cans and scrap. Altogether, the restless and fertile Sperry held more than 400 patents.