Elmer Sperry: Inventor and Engineer (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)

A Major American Inventor Who Obtained Over 350 Patents During His Lifetime, Elmer Sperry Contributed Greatly To The Momentous Technological Changes That Occurred Between 1880 And 1930. Best Known For The Sperry Gyrocompass And Automatic Pilot, His Inventions Included Arc-light Systems, Mining Machinery, Electric Automobiles And Streetcars, And Electrochemical Processes...--book Jacket. I. The Cultivation Of An Inventor -- Ii. Chicago: The Maturing Of An Inventor -- Iii. The Inventor-entrepreneur -- Iv. The Gyrostabilizer: A Very Powerful Fulcrum In Space -- V. Harnessing The Rotation Of The Earth: The Gyrocompass -- Vi. Organized Experimentation And Development: The Sperry Gyroscope Company -- Vii. A Beast Of Burden Obsessed With Motion: Stabilizing The Airplane -- Viii. Brainmill For The Military -- Ix. The Assumption Of Leadership: The Naval Consulting Board And The Aerial Torpedo -- X. Fulfillment And Legacy -- Appendix A. Elmer Sperry Patent Applications Maturing As Patents -- Appendix B. Engineering And Scientific Papers Of Elmer Sperry. Bibliography: P. 341-342. "Awarded the Dexter Prize of the Society for the History of Technology.""Superb... In this careful study of a single inventor, Hughes has done more to demonstrate the questionable' nature of traditional accounts of invention than all of the theoretical arguments of the past few years combined."-- "Technology and Culture." Softshell Books. WHEN ELMER SPERRY HIS CAREER AS AN INVENTOR, ENGINEER, AND ENTREpreneur in 1880, America had embarked upon a course of rapid industrialization and urbanization.