Design of the Sperry Mk XIV Gyro-Compass

The Sperry Mk XIV was a very popular Gyro-Compass of the WWII era, used on thousands of ships. It's proper operation was a matter of life-or-death in this mission critical role. This old training video explains the key design elements required to build a gyroscope capable of sensing and responding to the rotation of the Earth and using that feedback to align the compass to the North/South rotational axis of the Earth by non-magnetic means. The most critical elements are a sufficiently massive gyroscope mo