THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



interest. But about twenty-five years ago an attempt 

 was made to utilize the principle of the spinning-top in 

 a way that would directly concern the personal comfort 

 of a large number of voyagers. It was nothing less than 

 the effort to give stability to a room on a steamship, in 

 order that the fortunate occupant might avoid the evils 

 of seasickness. The man who stood sponsor for the 

 idea, and who expended sums variously estimated at 

 from fifty thousand to more than a million dollars in 

 the futile attempt to carry it into execution, was the 

 famous Sir Henry Bessemer, famed for his revolutionary 

 innovations in the steel industry. It would appear that 

 Bessemer's first intention was to make a movable room 

 to be balanced by mechanisms worked by hand. But 

 after his project was under way his attention was called 

 to the possibility of utilizing gyroscopic forces to the 

 same end. As the story goes, he chanced to purchase 

 a top for sixpence, and that small beginning led him 

 ultimately to expend more than a million dollars in play- 

 ing with larger tops. His expensive toy passed into 

 history as the ** Bessemer chamber." It was actually 

 constructed on a Channel steamer; but the would-be 

 inventor, practical engineer though he was, did not find 

 a way properly to apply the principle, and his experiment 

 ended in utter failure. 



With this, the idea that the gyroscope-wheel could 

 ever aid in steadying a ship at sea seemed to be proved a 

 mere vagary unworthy the attention of engineers. But 

 not all experimenters were disheartened, and since the 

 day of Sir Henry Bessemer's fiasco a number of workers 

 have given thought to the problem — with the object, 



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