Elmer A. Sperry was born on October 12, 1860 in Cortland, New York, where he attended the local elementary and high schools. When he was sixteen, he joined a local YMCA group and traveled to the 1876 Philadephia Exposition where he was particularly fascinated by the technological exhibitions. In later life, Sperry maintained that this trip determined the direction of his future career. When he returned from Philadelphia, he enrolled at Cornell University for one year to study electrical engineering. At Cornell Sperry built a modified dynamo which dramatically increased the production of electrical current. After describing his successful experiments to a group of Syracuse industrialists, Sperry was hired to build a large generating station capable of operating the city's downtown arc lighting system. This project was completed in the fall of 1882 and attracted a good deal of national attention at a time when the arc lighting industry was still in its infancy. Thus, at the age of twenty-two, Elmer Sperry was recognized as one of America's electrical pioneers.

Sperry's patent records show that he made three major improvements in the generator as he designed what was, at the time, considered to be an unusually efficient armature. As Thomas Hughes has pointed out, Sperry's most significant contribution was the development of the automatic, electromagnetic regulator based on closed-loop feedback control which, in case of an overload, could extinguish all the lamps in an arc lighting system without damaging them.

In the spring of 1883, Sperry moved to Chicago and began to demonstrate an entrepreneurial flair as he attempted to manufacture and market his dynamo and arc lighting systems in one of America's fastest growing urban centers. Within three years he established the Sperry Electric Illuminating Company, and the Sperry Electric Light, Motor, and Car Brake Company. However, in Chicago he found himself competing with eleven other electric companies including the Western Edison and Brush Electric. Given the nature of this competition, most of Sperry's contracts were relatively small and he found he was unable to make a significant impact in the market place. He did manage to secure a number of contracts for spectacular festive lighting and this provided him with valuable publicity. In 1886 he negotiated an agreement with the Chicago Board of Trade to light its new 300-foot tower. This 40,000-candlepower beacon brought Elmer Sperry considerable national attention, but in the long run Sperry could not compete with the larger and better financed electrical manufacturers. By the late 1880s his Chicago enterprises were on the verge of bankruptcy. The introduction of alternating current during these years increased the capital required to maintain a position within the industry and, therefore, small operators like Elmer Sperry were not competitive.

In 1889 Sperry was forced to leave the electrical manufacturing business. As he searched for new challenges. he turned his attention to the coal industry. In the late 1880s, Illinois was the United States' most important coal producing state. Sperry began working with a number of large coal mine operators to manufacture electrically powered undercutting and punching machinery. During these years he also developed an electric powered mine car and patented a system to distribute electricity in a coal mine. This system found a ready market and by 1891 the Sperry Electric Mining Machine Company had more than fifty employees and annual sales in excess of $130,000. At first the company rented space at the Link-Belt Company's Chicago factory, but in 1892 the Thomson-Houston Electric Company bought the enterprise for $50,000. According to the terms of the transaction, Sperry went to work for Thomson-Houston as a consultant. However, his brother-in-law and partner, Herbert Goodman, soon established a competing firm, the Independent Electric Company, in which Sperry had a 30 percent interest. Even though Sperry left Chicago for Cleveland in 1893, he continued to be associated with his brother-in-law's company until the end of his life. By 1900, when it was reorganized and became the Goodman Manufacturing Company, it had become one of the nations's most important producers of coal mine equipment.

Elmer Sperry moved to Cleveland because of a growing association with several financiers who had invested in his experimental electric street car. Many of these investors were also connected with the Thomson-Houston Company. In 1895 when the Thomson-Houston and the Edison Electric Company merged to form General Electric, G.E. acquired Sperry's street car patents, and he went to work for the new company as a consultant. These patents, like his earlier work with arc lighting systems, reflected Sperry's interest in automatic control systems which he believed could help solve some of the problems associated with power transmission and braking. However, once G.E. acquired his patents, Sperry appeared to lose interest in the electric street car as he turned his attention to what was then the nation's most exciting new industry, the automobile. Sperry's experiments in the 1890s with the electric automobile led him to work on perfecting an appropriate storage battery and this interest in turn drew him to the field of electrochemistry.

In 1901 Sperry read a journal article which described the electrolytic process used by a young Washington patent examiner, Clinton P. Townsend. The Townsend process was designed to liberate sodium hydroxide and hydrogen from a brine solution. Upon learning about it, Sperry immediately realized this reaction could potentially supply a new form of energy for industrial chemistry. He contacted Townsend and offered to finance his experimental work in exchange for rights to his patents. Together, Sperry and Townsend began working on the development of an electrolytic cell and made plans to set up a production facility to manufacture caustic soda and white lead. For a while this operation appeared to have promise and Sperry moved to Niagara Falls where he opened a production plant. In 1903 and 1904 a number of other companies expressed keen interest in Sperry's and Townsend's experimental work. The Solvay Process Company, Anaconda Lead, and Grasselli Chemical offered to buy Sperry's Niagara plant, but after a number of lengthy patent infringement suits, the Hooker Development and Funding Company purchased the operation. After the sale to Hooker, Sperry began working on a detinning process, which he was forced to sell to the American Can Company when he again found himself the defendant in a series of patent infringement suits.

Once again Sperry was forced to move in a new direction. In 1907 he began to explore the world of the gyroscope as he sought to apply this technology to problems associated with airplane and ship stabilization and control. Within a decade, Sperry had developed the ship gyrostabilizer. gyrocompass, marine gyropilot, high-intensity searchlight, and aerial torpedo. These gyroscopic inventions, which incorporated the principles of automatic guidance and feedback control, established Elmer Sperry as a high-technology pioneer. As Thomas Hughes has pointed out, although Sperry did not use the modern terminology of automation and cybernetics, these concepts were built into his gyroscopic systems which relied on analog computers, servomotors, and programmed controllers.

In the spring of 1910, Elmer Sperry founded the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn, New York, to manufacture and market his marine gyrostabilizing devices. During the months that followed he began to work closely with Admiral David W. Taylor of the U. S. Navy to test and perfect his inventions. In 1911 the first gyrocompass was installed on the battleship Delaware. Despite some problems associated with its installation, by 1915 it had been adopted as standard equipment by the U. S. Navy and had been sold to more than sixty steamship lines. In 1913 the USS Worden became the first gyrostabilized ship and the Sperry Gyroscope Company became one of the Navy's most important contractors. The company soon became known as the “brain mill for the military.” After the outbreak of World War I, Elmer Sperry was asked to sit on the Naval Advisory Board, a position he held until 1925. During these years he and his son Lawrence worked closely with the Navy in order to develop and manufacture the airplane stabilizer, gyrostabilized bombsights, automatic fire control systems, the aerial torpedo, and antiaircraft devices.

In the 1920s the company began to sell its products abroad as it opened a number of European and Japanese sales offices. By the time Elmer Sperry died in 1930, Sperry Gyroscope had become one of the world's most important producers of military hardware.

The Elmer Sperry personal papers have been organized into seven series which parallel the structure of Thomas Hughes' book, Elmer Sperry Inventor and Engineer. The papers trace Sperry's life and work, beginning in Cortland, New York, and through his Chicago-Cleveland and gyroscope periods.

Series I. Personal Papers

This series contains genealogical and biographical information on Sperry and his family. Included is a diary of Stephen Decatur Sperry (Elmer's father), genealogical charts tracing the family roots to England and the reign of Charles I, and letters from Elmer Sperry describing his early life in Cortland and experiences at Cornell University. This series also includes correspondence of Zula Goodman Sperry (Elmer's wife) and her brother, Herbert Goodman, describing the role the Goodman family played in Elmer Sperry's various enterprises.

Series II. General Correspondence

This series contains both alphabetical and chronological files. Included are letters to Herbert Hoover and John D. Rockefeller, which discuss political and social issues. Correspondence with David Eugene Smith (Columbia University) focuses on Sperry's ideas about the relationship between science and technology.

Series III. Chicago-Cleveland Records

This series describes Sperry's inventions and entrepreneurial activities in the two decades between 1880 and 1900 when Sperry was considered one of America's electrical pioneers. The records document Sperry's efforts to develop arc lighting systems, stationary power, mining machinery, electric traction, and the electric automobile. The records describe the operation of the Sperry Electric Light, Motor, and Car Brake Company, which was founded in 1883 to set up electric power stations and manufacture component parts. The Chicago-Cleveland period records are fragmentary but they do contain copies of Sperry's agreements with his financial backers and correspondence which traces his efforts to patent his inventions and secure customers. Records documenting Sperry's associations with the Electric Mining Machine Company and Independent Electric Company are far more complete. These files, which include incoming correspondence, letter books, sales books, and account books, trace Sperry's efforts to develop electric mine cars and undercutting equipment. Sperry's letter books contain copies of a large number of reports he sent to the engineers at General Electric for analysis and comment. These letters show that Sperry was able to draw on the expertise of many of G. E.'s young engineers who were, during the 1890s, graduating from engineering schools in relatively large numbers. These young engineers helped to orient Sperry to the early twentieth-century world of professional engineering. The Chicago-Cleveland records document Sperry's relationship with the Link-Belt Company which rented him space to set up a factory to manufacture his electric mine cars. The records also show that Link-Belt provided his company with both technical support and legal advice when he became embroiled in a number of patent infringement suits during the mid-1890s. The correspondence of the Goodman Manufacturing Company traces Sperry's continued involvement with the coal-mining machine industry through the 1920s. These records show that Sperry continued to help make policy decisions and served as a consulting engineer long after he left Chicago.

During the late 1890s, Sperry's primary interest was in street railways. His correspondence during this period describes his effort to develop and patent his electric governor and car brake test reports. Correspondence with G. E. engineers show that Sperry's street car employed a mode of power transmission similar to that in his mine locomotive. The records describe Sperry's efforts to market his street cars as well as his increasing commitment to experimentation and testing. Other records from Sperry's Chicago-Cleveland period include those generated by the Sperry Engineering, National Battery, and Whitley Exerciser Companies.

Taken together, these records suggest that from his earliest days as an electrical engineer, Sperry was experimenting with automatic feedback control. His arc lighting and dynamo patents describe two major improvements: a mechanical governor to automatically maintain uniform output, and an electromagnetic control mechanism to adjust current output to reflect load variations. The operation of Sperry's centrifugal governor was very similar to the conventional feedback devices used in steam engines and anticipated his experiments with gyroscopic feedback control.

The papers clearly demonstrate that by the mid-1880s, Sperry was recognized as an important electrical pioneer. He was a founding member of the National Electric Light Association which was attempting to regulate the high power transmission lines developed to allow electric power to be economically transmitted over long distances.

Series IV. Electrochemistry Files

This series summarizes Sperry's experimental work and entrepreneurial interests in electrochemistry. Correspondence with Clinton P. Townsend describes the work of the Townsend laboratory and documents the business relationship that Sperry and Townsend established. The letters and technical reports trace Townsend's efforts to develop the caustic soda and white lead processes. Correspondence with E. H. Hooker of the Hooker Chemical Company describes the business negotiations between Sperry and Hooker and Hooker's decision to help finance the development of the Townsend-Sperry process. The records include Sperry's and Townsend's correspondence with Leo Bakeland and Ernest Le Maire who supervised the construction and operation of the Niagara white lead plant for the Hooker Company. The series also documents Sperry's and Townsend's attempts to develop an economical detinning process. Correspondence with William F. Dutton of the American Can Company describes operations of the detinning laboratory as well as the business relationship which developed between Sperry and Dutton. The papers also describe the patent suit with the T. Goldschmidt Company which eventually forced Sperry and Dutton to abandon their project.

Series V. Gyroscope Company Records

Elmer Sperry's most important contribution to technological development was his ability to apply the principles of the gyroscope to the problems associated with airplane and marine control and stabilization. Sperry worked closely with the U. S. Navy and helped to launch a new era in research and development, one characterized by increasing government influence on the direction of technology for military purposes. The records in Series V (1910-1929) were, for the most part, generated by the Sperry Gyroscope Company. They include Elmer Sperry's business and technical correspondence which describes the development and marketing of the company's aeronautical and marine instruments. Sperry's research file traces the history of the gyroscope beginning with its invention by Leon Foucaul in 1854. His correspondence describes the state of gyroscopic technology and the patent situation as it existed in 1910.

The Sperry Gyroscope Company records also contain some fragmentary administrative records. There is a copy of the minutes of the first Board of Directors meeting (June 2, 1910), reports to the stockholders (1917-1918), and tax and financial records. There are also a few folders of personnel material, including correspondence with individual employees that reflect Elmer Sperry's paternalistic approach to industrial relations. Correspondence of Charles Doran, head of the company's London subsidiary, describes the company efforts to market its products in Great Britain.

Research, development, and sales records document the development and marketing of the marine and airplane stabilizer, high-intensity searchlight, fire control systems, gyrocompass, airplance automatic pilot, bombsights, and aerial torpedo. The collection includes Sperry's correspondence with both the engineers who worked on the projects and with the Navy. These letters trace the development of the control systems that were such an integral part of Sperry's gyrostabilizer. They also trace Sperry's experiments with servomechanisms and show how he built a mechanical analog computer into his gyrocompass to make course and speed corrections.

The records describe the joint tests carried out by Sperry and the U. S. Navy (while installing the gyrostabilizer on the USS Worden and Henderson). Correspondence with Admiral David W. Taylor and Commander William Mc Entree documents the Navy's efforts to test and utilize the stabilizer as an aid to fire control. The records, however, show that as late as the 1920s the Sperry fire control systems were quite primitive and the Navy, though it adopted them, was far from satisfied. It took another two decades and World War II for the company to perfect these systems.

The Sperry Gyroscope records trace the increasingly close relationship between Sperry and the military and describe the effect World War I had on shaping the company's research and development efforts. The war and the government funds that were made available clearly forced the company to emphasize military applications of gyroscopic technology. After 1914 the company devoted most of its manpower to perfecting its fire control systems, stable gun platforms, and guidance control systems for the aerial torpedo. In 1915 Elmer Sperry was appointed to the Naval Consulting Board, on which he served until 1929. This appointment institutionalized the informal relationship Sperry had established with the Navy before the war. Sperry's activities on the Naval Consulting Board are documented in letters to Thomas Edison, the board's head, in correspondence with Secretary of the Navy Josepheus Daniels and assistant secretary, Franklin D. Roosevelt. These letters trace the various controversies that surrounded the board from its inception and describe the debates that Sperry, Edison, and Daniels had as they tried to define the relationship between the proposed Naval Research Laboratory and the private sector.

In 1915 Elmer Sperry's second son, Lawrence, was put in charge of the Sperry Gyroscope Company's aviation department. Two years later Lawrence founded his own company, the Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Company, to develop and market the airplane stabilizer, aerial torpedo, and automatic pilot. Lawrence Sperry was also a daring test pilot and his exploits, particularly at the 1916 Paris air show, provided both his company and Sperry Gyroscope with valuable publicity. Lawrence Sperry's correspondence with his father describes the development of the aerial torpedo and the involvement of the U. S. Navy's Air Service with the project. The record shows that during the early 1920s Elmer Sperry signed over all rights to the drift indicator, air distance recorder, airspeed indicator, and air compass to his son's company, which was also designated as the exclusive sales agent for the aerial torpedo, automatic pilot, and directional gyro control indicator. The correspondence between Elmer and Lawrence Sperry traces the sometimes difficult relationship that evolved between father and son in the years before 1924 when Lawrence Sperry died in an airplane accident. There were times during the early 1920s when represenatives of the Sperry Gyroscope and Lawrence Sperry Companies made competing presentations to the War and Commerce Departments, much to the embarrassment of Elmer Sperry.

After World War I, the Sperry Gyroscope Company began a systematic effort to market its products abroad. The records documenting these sales initiatives contain correspondence with representatives of the English, French, Russian, and Japanese Navies. Sperry's correspondence with Admiral Hideo Takado, who represented the Japanese Navy as well as Mitsubishi Zosen Kaisha Ltd., is of particular interest. These letters trace the process by which Mitsubishi became a licensee for Sperry products and Sperry Gyroscope gained access to the Japanese Navy. The Sperry-Takado letters have both a personal and business dimension. The two men soon realized they shared common interests and value systems based on a faith in technological progress and an appreciation of hard work. These correspondence files show that this friendship led Sperry to greatly appreciate Japanese culture. He made several trips to Japan at the end of his life and in 1929 organized the World Engineering Conference in Tokyo.

Series VI. Internal Combustion and Compound Diesel Engine Development Records

In the 1920s Elmer Sperry shifted his focus of interest once again. After his son's death he turned over the day-to-day operation of the Gyroscope Company to a cadre of professional managers and turned his attention to a technological problem that had first captured his imagination as a young man in Chicago--the compound diesel engine. Correspondence with Charles Kettering of General Motors shows that by 1919 Sperry was seeking to develop a diesel engine because he had concluded the world was exhausting its oil supplies and more efficient ways to use energy had to be found. Also he was convinced that flammable avaiation fuel had to be replaced by a safer form of energy. Elmer Sperry's files on the compound diesel engine and the electric transmission include a number of blueprints and patent diagrams describing his diesel engine and proposed electronic transmission. During the 1920s Sperry collaborated closely with H. C. Snow, an engineer with the Velie Motors Corporation of Moline, Illinois, and the collection includes a complete file of their letters. These records show that in spite of their efforts the diesel project was both a technological and financial failure. Sperry could not develop a working model nor could he raise the capital required to finance research and development in this area. For a while Ford Motor Company, Standard Oil, Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the Illinois Central Railroad expressed interest in Sperry's work, but when the research and development did not proceed as rapidly as expected, they quickly withdrew their support.

Series VII. Diaries and Patent Records

The Elmer Sperry papers contain a complete record of his published patents (1882-1933). The collection also includes his laboratory notebooks for the years 1880 to 1929. These notebooks, which do have some gaps, can be used to trace the evolution of Elmer Sperry's approach to arc lighting, street railways, electrochemistry, gyroscopic technology, internal combustion engines, and the technological problems he encountered with each of these projects. Sperry was very articulate in his diaries and explored a variety of technological and scientific issues in them. It is evident that he drew on the work of a number of academic physicists and mathematicians and tried to apply their insights to experimental problems. Sperry's diaries contain a large number of sketches which reflect an appreciation of modern science. However, the diaries also show that in many ways Sperry was a nineteenth-century artist-engineer rather than a modern scientist whose insights are based on mathematical models.

Copyright restrictions may apply.

Gift of Elmer Sperry III

March 1989

Processed by Michael H. Nash

Records of the Sperry Gyroscope Company and Sperry Corporation. Photographs are in the Pictorial Collections Department.