Editing Gyroscope (section)

===Early similar devices===
Essentially, a gyroscope is a [[Spinning top|top]] combined with a pair of [[gimbal]]s. Tops were invented in many different civilizations, including classical Greece, Rome, and China.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=327 |title=Brief History of Gyroscopes |last1=Range|first1=Shannon K'doah |last2=Mullins|first2=Jennifer |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710113230/http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=327 |archive-date=10 July 2015}}</ref> Most of these were not utilized as instruments.

The first known apparatus similar to a gyroscope (the "Whirling Speculum" or "Serson's Speculum") was invented by [[John Serson]] in 1743. It was used as a level, to locate the horizon in foggy or misty conditions.

The first instrument used more like an actual gyroscope was made by [[Johann Bohnenberger]] of Germany, who first wrote about it in 1817. At first he called it the "Machine".<ref>Johann G. F. Bohnenberger (1817) "Beschreibung einer Maschine zur Erläuterung der Gesetze der Umdrehung der Erde um ihre Axe, und der Veränderung der Lage der letzteren" (Description of a machine for the explanation of the laws of rotation of the Earth around its axis, and of the change of the orientation of the latter), [http://www.ion.org/museum/files/File_1.pdf Tübinger Blätter für Naturwissenschaften und Arzneikunde] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719070449/http://www.ion.org/museum/files/File_1.pdf |date=19 July 2011 }}, vol. 3, pages 72–83.</ref><ref>The French mathematician [[Siméon Denis Poisson|Poisson]] mentions Bohnenberger's machine as early as 1813: Simeon-Denis Poisson (1813) "Mémoire sur un cas particulier du mouvement de rotation des corps pesans" [Memoir on a special case of rotational movement of massive bodies], ''Journal de l'École Polytechnique'', vol. 9, pages 247–262. Available online at: [http://www.ion.org/museum/files/File_2.pdf Ion.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719070631/http://www.ion.org/museum/files/File_2.pdf |date=19 July 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last1=Wagner|first1=Jörg F.|title=The Machine of Bohnenberger|date=2014|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39905-3_6|work=The History of Theoretical, Material and Computational Mechanics – Mathematics Meets Mechanics and Engineering|pages=81–100|editor-last=Stein|editor-first=Erwin|series=Lecture Notes in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics|place=Berlin, Heidelberg|publisher=Springer|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-39905-3_6|isbn=978-3-642-39905-3|access-date=20 February 2021|last2=Trierenberg|first2=Andor}}</ref> Bohnenberger's machine was based on a rotating massive sphere.<ref>A photograph of Bohnenberger's instrument is available on-line here: [http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=5&scid=12&iid=24 Ion.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928044532/http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=5&scid=12&iid=24 |date=28 September 2007 }} ION Museum: The Machine of Bohnenberger.</ref> In 1832, American Walter R. Johnson developed a similar device that was based on a rotating disc.<ref>Walter R. Johnson (January 1832). [https://books.google.com/books?id=BjwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA266-IA2 "Description of an apparatus called the rotascope for exhibiting several phenomena and illustrating certain laws of rotary motion"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819023327/https://books.google.com/books?id=BjwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA266-IA2 |date=19 August 2016 }}, ''The American Journal of Science and Art'', 1st series, vol. 21, no. 2, pages 265–280.</ref><ref>Drawings of Walter R. Johnson's gyroscope ("rotascope") were used to illustrate phenomena in the following lecture: E.S. Snell (1856) [https://books.google.com/books?id=fEyT4sTd7ZkC&pg=PA175 "On planetary disturbances,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819023557/https://books.google.com/books?id=fEyT4sTd7ZkC&pg=PA175 |date=19 August 2016 }} Board of Regents, ''Tenth Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution....'' (Washington, D.C.: Cornelius Wendell, 1856), pages 175–190.</ref> The French mathematician [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]], working at the [[École Polytechnique]] in Paris, recommended the machine for use as a teaching aid, and thus it came to the attention of [[Léon Foucault]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=5&scid=12&iid=24 |title=ION Museum: The Machine of Bohnenberger |access-date=24 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928044532/http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=5&scid=12&iid=24 |archive-date=28 September 2007}}</ref>