GB213791A - Improvements in course-indicating devices - Google Patents

Abstract

213,791. Jackson, P. R., (Sperry Gyroscope Co.). May 8, 1923. Gyroscopic apparatus.-A gyroscope device, for use e.g. in bombing operations, for indicating deviation of an aeroplane or other dirigible craft from a predetermined straight course is adapted to be locked in a centralized position in relation to the craft and to be unlocked while the gyroscope is spinning. The gyroscope wheel 45 is mounted on bearings 51 in a ring 50 pivoted on a horizontal axis at right-angles to that of the bearings 51 within a ring 25 pivoted on a vertical axis within the forward portion 10 of a casing fixed to the dashboard of the craft, the rear portion 11 of this casing being provided, with a window 20. The upper and lower bearings of the ring 25 are adjustable for centralizing the wheel ' 45 vertically. The periphery of the wheel 45 is formed with buckets 85 to which air for driving the wheel is delivered through .nozzles 81, 82, Fig. 5, near the end of a tube 77 which receives the air through a screen 75, passages 33, and the hollow trunnions 26 of the lower bearing of the frame 25. The air suction is obtained by the use, as described in Specification 152,008, of a Venturi tube connected by piping to a hand-controlled valve in the casing 10. The jets from the nozzles 81, 82 are arranged to strike the buckets 85 at substantially equal distances above and below the axis of the wheel 45 to eliminate precessional effects when this axis is tilted in relation to the ring 25. An arm 62 fixed to the ring 25 extends towards the window 20 and carries an index 65 co-operating with a scale 66 adjustably supported from the casing 10 to indicate lateral deviations from a straight course. A weight 60 adjustable according to the latitude on a threaded rod 61 secured to the ring 50 serves to counteract precession due to the earth's rotation and co-operates with a cross-wire 99 to indicate deviations in a vertical plane. To lock the gyroscope in a centralized position the end' 91. of an extension of one of the bearings 51 is engaged by a hole 90 in the vertex of a cone 86 forming part of a member 96, and to unlock the gyroscope while spinning the member 96 is retracted against the action of a spring 97, Fig. 3, by pulling on a wire 92.