This most attractive example is in the apparatus collection at Bowdoin College.
It has no maker's name and is about 40 cm high.
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This most attractive example is in the apparatus collection at Bowdoin College. It has no maker's name and is about 40 cm high. |
The gyroscope was invented in 1852 by the French experimental physicist Leon Foucault (1819-1868) as part of a two-pronged investigation of the rotation of the earth. The better-known demonstration of the Foucault pendulum showed that the plane of rotation of a freely-swinging pendulum rotated with a period that depends on the latitude of its location. His gyroscope was a rapidly rotating disk with a heavy rim, mounted in low-friction gimbals. As the earth rotated beneath the gyroscope, it would maintain its orientation in space. This proved to be hard to do in practice because the frictional forces bring the spinning system to rest before the effect could be observed. The gimbal bearings also introduce unwanted torque. But, the principle is well-known to all children who move their toy gyroscopes about and observe that the spinning disk stays in the same orientation. |
| The unmarked gyroscope
at the right in the Garland Collection of Classical Physics Apparatus at
Vanderbilt University. However, there are a good many pieces in the collection
from Deleuil of Paris. Looking at the 1865 Deleuil catalogue turned up a
picture of a "Stréphoscope" which is identical to the Vanderbilt apparatus.
This was sold for 50 francs (about $10.00).
The cast iron arm shows up on other pieces of apparatus. |
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| This gyroscope, at Marietta College in Ohio, bears a
close resemblance to the one above. This one, however, is marked with the
name of J. W. Queen of Philadelphia on it. The 1888 catalogue description
is Hardy's Inverting Gyroscope. Base of mahogany, pillar and supporting
arm of iron, neatly japanned, wheels of brass, four inches in diameter, with
set of rubber cords ...$16.00".
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The two gyroscopes below at at Cornell University, and both are listed
in the 1890 catalogue of Ducretet of Paris. The one on the left is clearly
the same as the one above from Marietta College, and shows that Queen imported
that apparatus and did not manufacture it. It cost 75 francs, about $15.
The gyroscope at the right was designed by Sire; other wire guides were a
flat spiral and an S-shaped one. This cost 50 francs, or $10.
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This is another example of Sire's gyroscope, this time by Newton and Company of London. Here the flat wire spiral guide has been installed. After I returned home from photographing this piece of apparatus at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in October 2004, I realized that I had seen the rotor to this apparatus, and it looked just like the rotor on the right, above at Cornell University. |
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This large lecture table gyroscope at Dartmouth College is unmarked. I can testify to its weight; when I removed it from its storage cabinet and carried it out to be photograph it in June 2001, I was fairly staggered. Clearly a good deal of rotational kinetic energy can be stored in its flyweel. |
| The other phenomenon commonly associated
with the gyroscope is precession under the influence of a gravitational
torque. I often use the gyroscope shown at the right for demonstrations
in my classes at Kenyon College. The design is that of Julius Plücker
1801-1868 and Friedrich Fessel 1821- ca. 1860. Depending on the location
of the counter- weight, the system rotates to the right or to the left.
This apparatus was made by Ritchie of Boston sometime after 1881. The aluminum nut holding on the counterweight is obviously a replacement. |
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| The unmarked Plücker and Fessel gyroscope at the right in in the Garland Collection of Classic Physics Apparatus at Vanderbilt University, | 
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The Plücker and Fessel gyroscope at the left was
sold by James W. Queen of Philadelphia. With a three-inch brass wheel it sold
for $6.00, while the model with the four-inch wheel was $8.00 in the 1888
Queen catalogue.
This example is at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. |
| I discovered the massive Plücker and Fessel gyroscope at the right atop a tall cabinet in one of the lecture preparation rooms at the University of Texas at Austin in January 2003. The scale can be inferred from the fact that I brought the rotating part down the ladder with considerable difficulty. The advantage of this apparatus is the the flywheel stores lots of energy and will run for a long time. The gyroscope probably dates from about 1920. |
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This amazing gyroscope is by Queen of Philadelphia, and is in the collection of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. The Plücker and Fessel mechanism sitting in front can be used on its stand, or it can be placed on top of the balanced stand at the top of the main apparatus. This base is the same as the Ritchie Plücker and Fessel gyroscope in the Kenyon collection that is shown above. |
The apparatus is shown in the 1860 catalogue of E. S. Ritchie of Boston, and the copy reads: "Gyrascope [sic]; mounted on gimbals, and supported upon a balanced frame; the persistency of the wheel to revolve in the same plane as it is turned around the centre, beautifully shows the motions of the earth around the sun; a small weight attached to one of the axes, illustrates the precession of the equinoxes; brass wheel 4 inches diameter ...$15.00" |
This counterbalanced gyroscope at Davidson College helped
me solve a mystery. In the collection at Kenyon College is a Tellurian, which is
a model for the earth-moon system. It is exactly like the Bohnenberger's
apparatus, except that the brass wheel and its accompanying gimbals has
been replaced by an ivory billiard ball. At some time in the past the apparatus
has been modified.
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Later I discovered the same counterbalanced gyroscope in the collection of the physics department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. This time I took a better picture! |
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REF: Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr., "Gyroscopic Control of Hovercraft", Phys. Teach., 31, 4-5 (1993)