MIRACLES OF SCIENCE 



ordinary gas pipe or of a cable of wire is curved, 

 even very sharply, the car follows the curve without 

 difficulty, and, in defiance of ordinary laws of motion, 

 actually leans inward as a bicycle rider leans under 

 the same circumstances instead of careening outward 

 as one might expect. In the case of the large car, 

 forty passengers were crowded at one side, with the 

 result of causing that side of the car to rise, the entire 

 car being balanced securely in this leaning position. 

 All these anomalies are perfectly explicable, as illus- 

 trating the principles of gyroscopic action namely, 

 the enormously augmented momentum of a rotating 

 body, its tendency to maintain a stable position, and 

 its invariable shift at right angles to the line of force 

 that disturbs its position. In a sense, the stability 

 of Mr. Brennan's gyro-car is no more wonderful than 

 the stability of a spinning top or a rolling hoop. But 

 it is almost impossible to bear this in mind as you 

 watch the curious vehicle, poised for example on a 

 single strand of wire stretched across a gorge and 

 standing there perfectly rigid and altogether secure, 

 or, at mandate of its manipulator, passing forward 

 at low speed or at high with the same secure equil- 

 ibration. So anomalous does the gyro-car appear 

 when thus exhibited that its feats of automatic bal- 

 ancing seem to bid defiance to the laws of gravitation 

 and to suggest the working of miraculous powers. 



STABILIZING THE AIR SHIP 



When the power of the gyroscope in stabilizing the 

 monorail land vehicle and the ship at sea had been 

 demonstrated, it was natural that the question should 



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