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This is an extremely rare original example of the Ludwig Obry patent gyroscope from 1895. Built in Fiume, Austria for the infamous Whitehead torpedo, this gyroscope kept the torpedo that it was installed in running straight toward its intended target, which revolutionized warfare. Torpedoes could now actually hit the ships they were aimed at! The addition of the gyroscope to the torpedo made it so effective in fact, that it was coined “The devil's device“. The design and manufacture of this device wouldn't have been possible without the advent of the industrial revolution. The cocking key is used, with great effort, to use the mainspring as a sort of “battery“ that stores the force that I was exerting into potential energy. When fired, this potential energy is transferred into kinetic energy as the spring drives the main gear and spins up the flywheel of the gyroscope to an astonishing 20,000 revolutions per minute. According to Newton's first law of motion, it is the natural tendency of all moving objects to continue in motion in the same direction that they are moving, unless some form of unbalanced force acts upon the object to deviate its motion from its straight-line path. The heart of the guidance unit was the flywheel, and this flywheel was set along the long axis of the torpedo to keep it running in a straight line to the target. Prior to the addition of the gyroscope to the torpedo, torpedoes often veered off even circling back and hitting the very vessel that fired the torpedo! Science to the rescue!! For more amazing pieces of technical military history, please check us out at
