"The gyroscope has become quite famous of late, because of its having been employed as a steadier for the monorail car, and proposed as a regulator or governor for aeroplanes, so that I think it will not be amiss to tell you that a study of this toy is well worth any time and labour you may spend on it. There are great possibilities within this little instrument and its applications. I do not intend dealing with its principles, or with rotation problems generally, as they would, I fear, be beyond your present comprehension, but I will confine myself to describing the toy and showing you how it can be made, though it would be much cheaper to buy one from a dealer. The instrument consists of a ring of brass or other metal, like a curtain ring, and a smaller brass ring attached to a thick disc of white metal, or a metal disc with a thickened rim, as shown in [Fig. 78]. This disc is securely fixed to a metal pin, which is passed through two holes in the outer brass ring, and at one side a small rounded nut or ball of brass is screwed on the outer ring. The metal disc is at right angles to the outer ring. If a cord is wound several times round the metal pin, the outer ring held in the left hand, the pin and metal disc will revolve at a very high speed, while the outer ring remains stationary. The gyroscope can be placed on the knob, and while the disc is revolving the outer ring can be placed at any angle, and will remain stationary. It is also possible to balance it at any angle on the top of a support, such as the tip of a stick."
PART II
EVERYDAY MACHINES
[I]
SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE
Some of our inventions and some of our discoveries are of comparatively recent date, but most of them had their beginnings centuries before historical times, as many of our greatest inventions are the result of gradual growth and development. The early discovery, by some unknown persons or persons, of the making of bronze and the hardening of it, led up to stone and woodcutting, perhaps to the breaking-up and smelting of iron ore, and the extraction of the metals. This again opened the way for the making of steel, a discovery that placed in the hands of man a source of power which enabled him to overcome many natural difficulties. One improvement led the way to another, and made other improvements possible. Take locomotives and steamboats for instance. The making of a raft, no doubt, suggested the canoe, and this led to the built-up boat, and the ship. The paddle and the oar doubtless led up to the sidewheeler, and the scull to the propeller. The crude steam engine of Hero very likely suggested the steam engines now in use, and this new power rendered it easy for Stephenson and Fulton to perform their work; but, if either of these inventors were to come back to the earth and examine the great steamers of to-day, or the perfect and powerful locomotives now in use, they would be surprised to think that the present tractable monsters, were the outgrowth of their early efforts.
In the same manner may be traced the same gradual growth in all the arts and sciences; for step by step, in every department of life, have completeness and perfection come to us. It is not yet one hundred years since Congreve invented or rather completed the invention of the "Parlor match," called in his day, the "Lucifer match." This grand achievement was accomplished after many failures in the efforts of chemists for ages. The perfection of the match was a great blessing to humanity, as the old methods of making a light or fire were tiresome and very uncertain. So it is with many of the blessings we enjoy to-day: they are simply the results of the struggles of many unknown minds, the threads of which were gathered up and pieced together by one master mind, so as to be made useful and profitable to mankind.
In the early and middle ages, the inventor was looked upon as a wizard, a sort of inferior demon, or, at best, an uncanny kind of man, and a proper subject for the stake. When, by superior wisdom and skill, he invented some machine or device, or discovered some new and better method of accomplishing a useful end, he was at once looked upon as a necromancer in league with his Satanic majesty, and, therefore, unfit to associate with or be recognized as a Christian. History records many instances of inventors and progressive men being persecuted—and executed—because of their having discovered or invented something which would interfere with some vested or imaginary rights. The new inventions must be destroyed or put away out of sight and hearing, and the most powerful influences were employed to bring about this result. The stories told of Friar Bacon, Papin, Crompton, and hundreds of other inventors, give us a few of the reasons why so little progress was made in the arts and sciences previous to the sixteenth century.