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Remarkable Results Attained With Small Active Type Installation on Board Great Lakes Pleasure Craft—Rolling Practically Eliminated WING to the desire on the part @) of the officers of the navy to obtain reliable data at first hand a number of noteworthy experiments on board the U. S. S. Worpen with the active type of gyro-stabilizer were un- dertaken. The gyros were fitted to her main deck solely for experimental pur- poses and in order to obtain data and records having an important bearing on the question of stabilization. The ob- servations thus made were quite diversified, as they included the stabil- izer plant proper, all the features of automatic precession control, methods of producing artificial precession of the bureau of the chief of the of construction and_ repair United States navy, in the course of which he points. out that the gyro moment of stabilizer equipment for ships varies directly as the charac- tétistic of the ship; that is, ‘as . the product of the displacement, the meta- centric height and period of roll. No variation from this rule is involved in the fact that it has been definitely as- certained that small boats require rela- tively larger moments or greater stabil- izing power than is the case with larger ships. This means that waves of given magnitude belabor small ships Taylor, now More, By Elmer A. Sperry minimum of power for maintaining the spin of the wheel for a maximum of gyroscopic moment. On the contrary, where only a limited space and weight are permissible, and an abundance of power is available, a small gyro, spin- ning at higher velocity, may be utilized for developing comparatively large sta- bilizing moments. The first commercial gyroscope stabilizing equipment to be installed has been placed upon the beautiful little yacht WupcEeon, plying on the Great Lakes, and owned by H. M. Hanna Jr., Cleveland. This was placed in service in the autumn of 1915, and is of the FIG. 1—CRUISER YACHT WIDGEON, gyros, and also observations on the ship itself- under conditions of stabilization as to motion and behavior and also the effect upon the structure. As a result of this work, it has been established that the gyroscope is useful in solving certain problems at sea, and orders have been issued for fitting permanent plants, thus putting it into practical service. Since this work further investiga- tions have been in progress. Among these have been determinations of the exact amount of the true wave incre- ment the gyros are required to neutral- ize, involving the relation of the gyro- quenching increment to the natural ex- tension curve of roll of the ship. A number of experiments have also been undertaken to determine the relation of ship to gyro. It is gratifying to note that all of this work has proved the soundness of the basic formula orig- inally laid down by Naval Constructor at the twenty-third general A paper read € Society of Naval Architects, meeting of the New York. SHOWING GYRO-STABILIZER AND INCOMPLETE HOUSING than they do large ones, which is to be expected. The former therefore re- quire relatively more roll quenching power. Again, it is possible to adjust the plant in other ways to meet. special conditions such, for instance, as limited space, met with in the case of sub- marines; limited weight, which is the case where the gyro is placed on deck, as in the motor yacht Wuinceon, and which is also the case with submarines ; then again the condition where a lim- ited power supply is available for spinning the gyro or gyros and handling the equipment. Inasmuch as the roll quenching power of the gyroscope varies as the square of its diameter and only directly as its speed and weight, and inasmuch as another factor, the power required for spin at the higher rates, varies almost directly as the cube of the peripheral velocity, it will at once be seen that where ample space is avail- able and the matter of weight is not critical, the rotor and spread of bearings may be so adjusted as to require a a7, FIG. 2—GYRO-STABILIZER USED IN WIDGEON full active type. The characteristics of WiInGEON, after some investigation, were determined to be as follows: Displacentent sis. ass Cees 165 tons Metacentric height...) ...:ccr sew we be7 5 it, Period of roll, over and back...4.75 sec. Water dune lem oth dsc. asin ceveneceucresets 120)... Water line beam......... 8 ft., 2. inches Total submerged amidship section. .80 sq. ft. For this ship a gyro was selected, the rotor, shaft and armature weighing 2,150 pounds. The space selected as most suitable under all. conditions for the location of the plant was on deck just abaft the stack, where it has been surrounded by a cabinlike housing pro- vided with windows permitting full ob- servation of all of the movements and oscillations of the gyro, which are known to be more or less unusual and interesting in character. The _ total weight of the equipment is about 1 per cent of the displacement. This yacht was considered a very free roller and has been reported to have rolled through an arc of 70 degrees or thereabouts. The gyroscopic roll re- corder shown in Fig. 9, afterwards em-