Page:Aerial Flight - Volume 2 - Aerodonetics - Frederick Lanchester - 1908.djvu/448



applications of the gyroscope exist that are of interest from the present point of view. Thus in the Brennan mono-rail the equilibrium is maintained by a gyroscope combination, in which the precession is hastened by the action of a small roller mounted on an extension of the spindle of the revolving wheel. The equilibrium thus has some analogy to that of a spinning top, in which the precession is hastened by the frictional contact with the ground.

In 1891 Sir Hiram Maxim proposed to secure the longitudinal stability of his aerodrome, or flying machine, by means of a gyroscope arranged to actuate horizontal bow and stern rudders, through the medium of a steam or pneumatic relay, in a manner similar to the maintenance of course in the Whitehead torpedo. As this machine never got beyond the captive stage, it may be presumed that the arrangement in question was not carried into effect.

The Tower "steady platform" is another device in which a gyroscope is arranged to give constancy of direction through the medium of a relay. In this device the gyroscope is arranged to run as a spinning top with its axis vertical. Water under pressure passes into a conduit system in the rotating wheel