THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



the ordinary progression of the ship. Its sole design is 

 to prevent the ship from rolling. 



The expectations of its inventor were fully realized. 

 On a certain day in July, 1906, with a sea so rough that 

 the ship rolled through an arc of thirty degrees, when the 

 balance-wheel was not in revolution, the arc of rolling 

 was reduced to one degree when the great top was set 

 spinning and its secondary bearings released. In other 

 words, it practically abolished the rolling motion of the 

 craft, causing its decks to remain substantially level, 

 while the ship as a whole heaved up and down with the 

 waves. These remarkable results, with more in kind, 

 were recorded in the paper which Sir William White 

 read before the Institution of Naval Architects in Lon- 

 don in April, 1907. He himself had witnessed tests of 

 the Schlick gyroscope, and, in common with his col- 

 leagues, he accepted the demonstrations as unequivocal. 



Fully to understand the action of Dr. Schlick's in- 

 vention, one must know that it is not a mere wheel on 

 the single pivot, but a wheel adjusted in such a fashion 

 that it can oscillate longitudinally while revolving on its 

 vertical axis. In other words, it is precisely as if one of 

 the two gyroscope-wheels used in the Brennan car 

 (greatly enlarged) were so placed that its main axis was 

 vertical, its secondary axis, or axis of oscillation, being 

 horizontal and at right angles to the ship's length. 

 Thus, while spinning on its vertical axis the body of the 

 top is able to oscillate, pendulum-like, lengthwise of the 

 ship. 



In principle the action of this wheel is not different 

 from that of an ordinary top on your table which wabbles 



[ 220] 



