Spinning Tops: The "Operatives' Lecture" of the British Association Meeting at Leeds, 6th September, 1890Perry, John
Science
Spinning Tops: The "Operatives' Lecture" of the British Association Meeting at Leeds, 6th September, 1890
Perry, John
Gyro compass; Gyroscopes; Tops
D' is a circular shelf extending from the mid position in my direction; D
is a similar shelf extending from the mid position into the paper, or away
from me. It is on these shelves that H' and H roll, causing precession away
from N O O' N', as I have just described. When H' is inside the paper, or
when H is outside the paper, they find no shelf to roll upon. There are,
however, two other shelves L and L', for two other rollers M and M', which
are attached to the frames concentric with the spindles; they are free to
rotate, but are not rotated by the spindles. When they are pressed by their
shelves L or L' this causes negative precession, and they roll towards the
N O O' N' position. There is, of course, friction at their supports,
retarding their rotation, and therefore the precession. The important thing
to remember is that H and H', when they touch their shelves (when one is
touching the other is not touching) cause a precession away from the mid
position N O O' N' at a rate [alpha], which produces a restoring moment
m[alpha] of nearly constant amount (except for slipping), whereas where M
or M' touches its shelf L or L' (when one is touching the other is not
touching) the pressure on the shelf and friction determine the rate of the
precession towards the mid position N O O' N', {148} as well as the small
vertical motion. The friction at the supports of M and M' is necessary.
Suppose that the tilt from the equilibrium position to be corrected is R,
when D presses H upward. The moment m[alpha], and its time of action (the
total momental impulse) are too great, and R is over-corrected; this causes
the roller M' to act on L', and the spindles return to the mid position;
they go beyond the mid position, and now the roller H' acts on D', and
there is a return to the mid position, and beyond it a little, and so it
goes on, the swings of the gyrostats out of and into the mid position, and
the vibrations of the car about its position of equilibrium getting rapidly
less and less until again neither H nor H', nor M nor M' is touching a
shelf. It is indeed marvellous to see how rapidly the swings decay.
Friction accelerates the precession away from N O O' N'. Friction retards
the precession towards the middle position.
It will be seen that by using the two gyrostats instead of one when there
is a curve on the line, although the plane N O O' N' rotates, and we may
say that the gyrostats precess, the tilting couples which they might
exercise are equal and opposite. I do not know if Mr. Brennan has tried a
single gyrostat, the mid position of the axis of the wheel being vertical,
but even in this case a change of slope, or inequalities in the line, might
make it necessary to have a pair.
It is evident that this method of Mr. Brennan is altogether different in
character from that of Mr. Schlick. Work is here actually done which must
be supplied by the electromotors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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