Editing Gyrocompass (section)

== History ==
The first, not yet practical,<ref name=hee>{{cite book|pages=34–37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DN-9m2jSo8YC&pg=PA37|title=How experiments end|isbn=978-0-226-27915-2|last1=Galison|first1=Peter|year=1987| publisher=University of Chicago Press |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302022112/http://books.google.com/books?id=DN-9m2jSo8YC&pg=PA37|archive-date=2012-03-02}}</ref> form of gyrocompass was patented in 1885 by Marinus Gerardus van den Bos.<ref name=hee /> A usable gyrocompass was invented in 1906 in Germany by [[Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe]], and after successful tests in 1908 became widely used in the German Imperial Navy.<ref name=an /><ref name=hee /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://downloads.german-pavilion.com/downloads/pdf/exhibitor_24199.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-02-19 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629014757/http://downloads.german-pavilion.com/downloads/pdf/exhibitor_24199.pdf |archive-date=2015-06-29 }}     Standard 22
Anschütz Gyro Compass <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> System: Gyro Compass <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> Technology <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> for over than <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki> 100 years</ref> Anschütz-Kaempfe founded the company [[Raytheon Anschütz|Anschütz & Co.]] in [[Kiel]], to mass produce gyrocompasses; the company is today Raytheon Anschütz GmbH.<ref>[https://www.ihk-schleswig-holstein.de/news/ihk_kiel12955/Hermann-Anschuetz-Kaempfe/3405026 Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Schleswig-Holstein] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222061044/https://www.ihk-schleswig-holstein.de/news/ihk_kiel12955/Hermann-Anschuetz-Kaempfe/3405026 |date=2017-02-22 }} Retrieved on February 22, 2017.</ref> The gyrocompass was an important invention for nautical navigation because it allowed accurate determination of a vessel’s location at all times regardless of the vessel’s motion, the weather and the amount of steel used in the construction of the ship.<ref name="maritime.org" />

In the United States, [[Elmer Ambrose Sperry]] produced a workable gyrocompass system (1908: {{US patent|1,242,065}}), and founded the [[Sperry Corporation|Sperry Gyroscope Company]]. The unit was adopted by the U.S. Navy (1911<ref name=l />), and played a major role in World War I. The Navy also began using Sperry's "Metal Mike": the first gyroscope-guided autopilot steering system. In the following decades, these and other Sperry devices were adopted by steamships such as the {{RMS|Queen Mary}}, airplanes, and the warships of World War II. After his death in 1930, the Navy named the {{USS|Sperry}} after him.

Meanwhile, in 1913, C. Plath (a Hamburg, Germany-based manufacturer of navigational equipment including sextants and magnetic compasses) developed the first gyrocompass to be installed on a commercial vessel.  C. Plath sold many gyrocompasses to the Weems’ School for Navigation in Annapolis, MD, and soon the founders of each organization formed an alliance and became Weems & Plath.<ref>[http://www.weems-plath.com/weems-and-plath-story.php The Invention of Precision Navigational Instruments for Air and Sea Navigation] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718024746/http://www.weems-plath.com/weems-and-plath-story.php |date=2011-07-18 }}, Weems & Plath.</ref>

[[File:1889 Gymnote Gyroscope.jpg|thumb|The 1889 Dumoulin-Krebs gyroscope]]
Before the success of the gyrocompass, several attempts had been made in Europe to use a gyroscope instead. By 1880, [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|William Thomson]] (Lord Kelvin) tried to propose a [[gyrostat]] to the British Navy. In 1889, [[Arthur Krebs]] adapted an electric motor to the Dumoulin-Froment marine gyroscope, for the French Navy. That gave the [[French submarine Gymnote (Q1)|''Gymnote'']] submarine the ability to keep a straight line while underwater for several hours, and it allowed her to [http://rbmn.free.fr/Gymnote_Blocus_1890.jpg force a naval block] in 1890.

In 1923 [[Max Schuler]] published his paper containing his observation that if a gyrocompass possessed [[Schuler tuning]] such that it had an oscillation period of 84.4 minutes (which is the orbital period of a notional satellite orbiting around the Earth at sea level), then it could be rendered insensitive to lateral motion and maintain directional stability.<ref>{{citation |title=Introduction to avionics systems |first=R. P. G. |last=Collinson |publisher=Springer |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4020-7278-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbKkojYNjecC&pg=RA1-PA293 |pages=293 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707074016/http://books.google.com/books?id=rbKkojYNjecC&pg=RA1-PA293&lpg=RA1-PA293 |archive-date=2014-07-07 }}</ref>