VV(11): Gyrocompass

[Dave Monroe]

"For some reason the children of America conceived
around this time a simultaneous and psychopathic
craving for simple gyroscopes, the kind which are set
in motion by a string wound around a rotating shaft,
something like a top.  Chiclitz, recognizing a market
potential there, decided to expand.  He was well on
the way to cornering the toy gyroscope market when
along came a group of school kids on a tour to point
out that  these toys worked on the same principle as a
gyrocompass.  'As wha,' said Chiclitz.  They explained
gyrocompasses to him, also rate and free gyros." (V.,
Ch. 8, Sec. iv, p. 227)

If yr in the Bay Area, check out ...

http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibit_services/travel/navwithtools.html

A friend to whom I'd delivered my gyrocompass-to-polar
exploration rant mentioned he'd just seen this. 
Eternal vigilance is the price of research, I guess ...

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