WORKING WONDERS WITH A TOP 



than a century and a half ago, in the year 1744, a 

 British inventor named Serson conceived the idea 

 that a spinning top with a polished upper surface 

 might be used to supply an artificial horizon at sea, 

 in order that observations might be made when the 

 actual horizon was hidden by clouds or fog. The 

 British admiralty was disposed to test the apparatus, 

 but the inventor was lost in the wreck of the ship 

 Victory. The idea, however, has been utilized in 

 recent years, and with the modern gyroscopic ap- 

 paratus it is possible to secure an artificial horizon 

 that serves the navigator an admirable purpose. 



A much more important possibility of utilizing the 

 stability of a revolving wheel is concerned with the at- 

 tempt to prevent ships at sea from rolling. The first 

 important effort to make sea voyaging more com- 

 fortable with the aid of the gyroscope was made by 

 Sir Henry Bessemer, the famous English innovator 

 in the steel industry. Bessemer, however, did not 

 attempt to apply the principle to the stabilizing of an 

 entire ship, but only to a single room with a movable 

 floor constructed on a Channel steamer. It is said 

 that he spent a very large sum in the attempt to put 

 the idea into practice, but the experiment failed ut- 

 terly. 



Bssemer's futile experiments were carried out 

 about the year 1880. No one seems to have taken 

 up the task that he abandoned for a good many 

 years, and then the experimenters who thought that 

 the gyroscope might be of aid in making ocean travel 

 less disagreeable, turned their attention to the more 

 comprehensive problem of stabilizing the entire ship. 



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