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34 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • MAY 2014 MR’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY Edison at the time of his death (and Edi- son went on to hold the record for most patents granted to an American). Sperry was also a prolifi c entrepreneur, found- ing eight companies along the way. Sperry was a man of his age – an era when the inventor-entrepreneur fi rst came into play. Some, like Edison and Henry Ford, created whole new indus- tries and manufacturing empires with their inventions. Others, like Sperry, while certainly interested in profi t and successful fi nancially, were drawn more to the science involved and the oppor- tunity to apply new technologies and mechanics, according to his biographer, Prof. Thomas Hughes Park, author of the highly referenced Elmer Sperry – Inven- tor and Engineer. He was forced to sell off his fi rst company, the Sperry Electric Light, Motor, and Car Brake Co., which he founded in 1880 at the age of 20, fi ve years after its founding. The experience proved a lesson to Sperry. He wasn’t in- terested in being at the beck and call of other people’s assignments, or as much in the business of running a company, as he was in having the opportunity to explore new technologies and innovate, and the chance to tackle problems of his choosing. All of which led him to launch one of the country’s fi rst research labo- ratories in 1888. What Sperry is known most for is the gyroscope and its application to many problems, most notably in his version of the gyrocompass, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the man’s inventions and interests. He was among a handful of inven- tors toying with electric cars in the late 1800s, winning patents for combus- tion engines (later adapted to aircraft engines), automatic transmissions and electric brakes, street cars and automo- biles, as contemporaries in England and Germany produced vehicles for sale, and electric cab companies buzzed onto the scene on both sides of the Atlantic. But the concept was doomed, both by the unreliability of rechargeable electric (Photo: Hagley Museum and Library) The dog with pipe and hat was used in an advertisement for Sperry Gyro- scope Company circa 1927. MR #5 (32-41).indd 34 4/29/2014 12:16:28 PM
