Элмер Сперри: Американдық өнертапқыш және кәсіпкер

American industrialist

Elmer Ambrose Sperry Sr. (October 12, 1860 – June 16, 1930) was an American inventor and entrepreneur, most famous for construction, two years after Hermann Anschütz Kaempfe, of the gyrocompass and as founder of the Sperry Gyroscope Company. Sperry's compasses and stabilizers were adopted by the United States Navy and 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.

Sperry was born in Cincinnatus, New York, on October 12, 1860, to Stephen Decatur Sperry and Mary Burst. His mother died the next day, from complications from his birth. He was of English 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). In 1894, General Electric bought the railway company and its associated patents. In 1911, Sperry worked with the US Navy to incorporate his gyroscopic stabilizer, which greatly reduced major roll of the ship, into Navy ships. During World War I he 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.

Working with the US Navy, Sperry developed a system to control the entire battery of a battleship from an interior room of the ship. Starting in 1914, Sperry began working with the US Navy to develop higher power lighting for use with naval turrets.