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Personal Oy iohes of Marine Men Elmer Ambrose Sperry, Chairman, Sperry Gyroscope Co. By 1 RAE, Ge Kreutzberg THE ability to invent is something that cannot be acquired, according to Elmer Ambrose Sper- ry. He believes that a man either is born or is not born an inventor. He remembers his childhood, and how his’ keenness for wheels proved quite a nuisance to other members of the household. He would pick up wheels here and there and lug them home to assemble them into all kinds of mechanisms, at times making the parental abode resemble a junk shop. He was interested in the various activities of the boys in his home town but in a different way. For instance, when it came to baseball, young Sperry was more interested in the implements used in the game than in the game itself. He wormed his way into the good-will of a couple of machine shop owners and he would use their lathes for turning up bats.. He would play with a bat for a couple of innings and then go back and try to turn up a better one. His inter- est primarily was in evolving something new or some- thing better than previously had existed. If it was not baseball bats it was something else. The instinct which thus was expended in his _ boy- hood on such things as baseball bats, has reached its fruition in the years since in a catalog of discoveries which has earned for Mr. Sperry recognition as one of the greatest of living inventors. More than 400 patents have been allowed to him for inventions of diversified character which are rendering invaluable service today in many different fields. It is because of the importance and scope of his inventions that the greatest honor within the gift of the engineering profes- sion in the United States recently has been bestowed upon him. This is the John Fritz gold medal, which formal- VER 400 patents have been allowed him for inventions of diversified character rendering invaluable service today in many different fields. N RECOGNITION of the wmpor- tance and scope of his inventions he has been awarded the highest honor within the gift of the engineering profession. O HOURS are too long and no personal sacrifice is too great when he visualizes a problem which he seeks to solve, but with it all he is intensely human in friendship and loy- alty to home and country. ly will be presented to Mr. Sperry on Dec. 7. Born at Cortland, N. Y., in 1860, the descendant of English settlers who came to this country in 1634, Mr. Sperry was educated at the state normal school at Cortland and at Cornell university where he spent a single year, 1879-80. In 1879 he made his _ first real invention, an arc light. In 1880, while still a youth of 20, he founded the Sperry Electric Co., Chi- cago, and manufactured are lamps, dynamos, motors and other electrical appliances. It was in 1883 that he erected on Lake Michigan the highest electrical beacon in the world. This was about 350 feet high and was equipped with arc lights having a total of 40,000 candle power. As a result of entering a competition in 1888, Mr. Sperry produced the first electrical mining ma- chinery. His inventions in this field cover a wide range, and machinery invented by Mr. Sperry continues to be used in mining operations. About 380 years ago, Mr. Sperry became interested in the gyroscope and concluded that it could be utilized as a high precision compass. As a result, he produced his first successful gyro-compass which is used today as standard gunnery and navigating equipment in all navies. Further experiments with the gyroscope yielded the gyro-pilot for the automatic steering of ships. ‘Metal Mike” it was called by a skipper when it first made its appearance and the device since has became known by that name. With this instrument, the slightest de- parture from the true course of the ship is instantly and automatically corrected. “Metal Mike” has been installed on practically all of the world’s great liners. Mr. Sperry also applied the gyroscope toward the stabilization of ships. Four years of experience with a _ 16,000-ton vessel equipped with one of Mr. Sperry’s gyroscopes, 30