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Sperry Gyroscope Company Division Records 1915

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Sperry Gyroscope Company Division Records 1915 Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records 1915 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records 1915 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Historical Note ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Content ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 5 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Controlled Access Headings .......................................................................................................................... 6 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Collection Inventory ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Public Relations Department Technical literature file ................................................................................ 6 Public Information and Advertising Department Records ....................................................................... 44 Advertising Department - Vertical File .................................................................................................... 54 Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Company ......................................................................................................... 61 Engineering Department ............................................................................................................................ 63 H.K. Rutherford (General Manager, Planning Division) .......................................................................... 82 Sperry Corporation Financial Records ...................................................................................................... 83 Patent and Licensing Records ................................................................................................................... 85 Miscellaneous Administrative Records ..................................................................................................... 87 - Page 2 - Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records 1915 Summary Information Repository: Manuscripts and Archives Creator: Sperry Rand (Corporation). Sperry Gyroscope Division Title: Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records ID: 1915 Date [inclusive]: 1910-1970 Physical Description: 76 Linear Feet Language of the English . Material: Abstract: The Sperry Gyroscope Company was originally organized by electrical inventor Elmer Ambrose Sperry for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing his ship gyrostabilizer, gyrocompass, and high- intensity searchlight. The records describe the development and marketing of the marine and airplane stabilizer, the high-intensity searchlight, fire control systems, the gyrocompass, airplane automatic pilot, bombsights, and the aerial torpedo. They trace the evolving relationship between Sperry and the military and the impact of World Wars I and II. ^ Return to Table of Contents Historical Note The Sperry Gyroscope Company was incorporated on April 14, 1910. It was reincorporated in New York as the Sperry Gyroscope Company, Inc., on January 21, 1929. In April 1933 it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sperry Corporation and was merged into it as a division in December 1947. The Sperry Corporation merged with Remington Rand, Inc., on June 30, 1955, to form the Sperry Rand Corporation. Sperry Rand was renamed the Sperry Corporation in July 1979, and in November 1986 it merged with the Burroughs Corporation to form the Unisys Corporation. The Sperry Gyroscope Company was originally organized by electrical inventor Elmer Ambrose Sperry for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing his ship gyrostabilizer, gyrocompass, and high-intensity searchlight. During the years between 1915 and 1925 Sperry worked closely with the United States Navy to develop airplane stabilizers, gyrostabilized bombsights, automatic fire control systems, the aerial torpedo, and a number of anti-aircraft devices. - Page 3- Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records 1915 In 1928, two years before his death, Sperry sold the company to North American Aviation, Inc., a huge aviation holding company organized by Clement M. Keys that combined a number of major aircraft manufacturers and several important airlines. It was for this reason that the company was reincorporated in 1929. North American Aviation came under the control of General Motors but was broken up under the Air Mail Act of 1934. Sperry Gyroscope and an associated firm, the Ford Instrument Company, Inc., were spun off to a new holding company, the Sperry Corporation, in April 1933, which, with the breakup of North American Aviation, became an independent company. In the 1930s and 1940s Sperry Gyroscope worked with Stanford and MIT to develop the microwave technology that was necessary for modern radar systems. During the Second World War the company grew more than tenfold as it produced computer-controlled and stabilized bomb sights for the B-17 and B-32 bombers, automatic pilots, fire control systems, airborne radar equipment, and automated take-off- and-landing systems. It soon outgrew its Brooklyn plant, and the government built a new facility at Lake Success, Long Island. After the war Sperry began to look to the civilian market. In 1947 it acquired the New Holland Farm Machine Company. However, with the outbreak of the Cold War, Sperry continued to be primarily a military contractor. It played a major role in the development of surface-to-air missiles and nuclear submarines. The 1955 merger with Remington Rand provided Sperry with access to advanced computer technology, which it applied to the military sector. During the 1960s the company was a major contractor for the Mercury and Apollo projects, as it helped to develop the computerized command and control systems for the Atlas rocket. ^ Return to Table of Contents Scope and Content The records document the history of the company from its beginnings. They describe the development and marketing of the marine and airplane stabilizer, the high-intensity searchlight, fire control systems, the gyrocompass, airplane automatic pilot, bombsights, and the aerial torpedo. They trace the evolving relationship between Sperry and the military and the impact of World Wars I and II. There is also a copy of a 1942 oral history interview of Ford Instrument Company founder and Sperry engineer Hannibal C. Ford by Sperry Vice President Robert B. Lea. The archive includes the published patents from the Sperry Gyroscope Company (1929-1960) and the Ford Instrument Company (1917-1960). Also included are the records of a number of important patent interference cases: Sperry v. Kellogg (1958, automatic pilot); Sperry v. Collins Radio Company (1958, microwave); Russell H. Varian v. Frederic Llewellyn, Jr. (1948, Klystron, microwave); and Sperry v. Lear (1958, automatic pilot). The patent records include Russell H. Varian's laboratory notebooks (1938-1939) that were compiled at Stanford to document work on the Klystron project. - Page 4- Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records 1915 The Sperry Gyroscope archive was originally housed in the firm's Public Relations Dept. Consequently, the bulk of the records are a heterogeneous collection assembled to serve advertising and public relations needs. ^ Return to Table of Contents Administrative Information Publication Statement Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Provenance Deposit of Unisys Corporation Access Restrictions Some records subject to a 25-year time seal. Use Restrictions Literary rights retained by depositor. ^ Return to Table of Contents Related Materials Related Material Elmer A. Sperry papers (Accession 1893), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library - Page 5- Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records 1915 Sperry Corporation records (Accession 1910), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library Separated Material Sperry Gyroscope Company Division photographs (Accession 1986.273), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library ^ Return to Table of Contents Controlled Access Headings • Aeronautical instruments • Gyroscopes • Nautical instruments • Searchlights • World War, 1939-1945 • Vacuum-tubes • Microwave devices • Precision guided munitions • Aeronautics • Sperry Gyroscope Company Bibliography Nash, Michael. Computers, Automation, and Cybernetics at the Hagley Museum and Library (Greenville, Del.: Hagley Museum and Library, 1989). ^ Return to Table of Contents Collection Inventory Public Relations Department Technical literature file, 1915-1962 - Page
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