Sperry Gyroscope Company News

16 May 2014

Elmer A. Sperry: Pioneer of Modern Naval Tech

“Here’s one of the best pictures of your father and at the same time one of the few which was taken showing him actually using the gyrocompass. I suggest you keep this for your records.” Note to Elmer Jr. from Robert B. Lea, July 8, 1937 (Photo: Hagley Museum and Library)

Elmer A. Sperry casts a long shadow over the history of modern naval, nautical and aeronautical technology, one few people know much about, but should, for a man crowned both the “father of modern navigational technology” and “the father of automatic feedback and control systems,” as well as a pioneer of rocket and missile technology. “It is safe to say that no one American has contributed so much to our naval technical progress,” eulogized Charles Francis Adams III, Secretary of the Navy from 1929-1933, on the death of engineering genius Elmer Ambrose Sperry, June 16, 1930, at 69.

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