Thomas P. Hughes is professor of the history of modern science and technology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include Changing Attitudes toward American Technology and Networks of Power:Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930.

• PrefaceIntroduction1. The Cultivation of an Inventor2. Chicago: The Maturing of an Inventor3. The Inventor-Entrpreneur4. The Gyrostabilizer: A Very Powerful Fulcrum in Space5. Harnessing the Rotation of the Earth: TheGyrocompass6. Organized Experimentation and Development: The Sperry Gyroscope Company7. A Beast of Burden Obsessed with motion: Stabilizing the Airplane8. Brainmill for the Military9. The Assumption of Leadership: The Naval Consulting Board and the Aerial Torpedo10. Fulfillment and LegacyAppendix A: Elmer Sperry Patent Applications Maturing as PatentsAppendix B: Engineering and Scientific Papers of Elmer Sperry Index

Superb... In this careful study of a single inventor, Hughes has done more to demonstrate the 'questionable' nature of traditional accounts of invention than all of the theoretical arguments of the past few years combined. Technology and Culture

Thomas P. Hughes is professor of the history of modern science and technology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include Changing Attitudes toward American Technology and Networks of Power:Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930.

• PrefaceIntroduction1. The Cultivation of an Inventor2. Chicago: The Maturing of an Inventor3. The Inventor-Entrpreneur4. The Gyrostabilizer: A Very Powerful Fulcrum in Space5. Harnessing the Rotation of the Earth: TheGyrocompass6. Organized Experimentation and Development: The Sperry Gyroscope Company7. A Beast of Burden Obsessed with motion: Stabilizing the Airplane8. Brainmill for the Military9. The Assumption of Leadership: The Naval Consulting Board and the Aerial Torpedo10. Fulfillment and LegacyAppendix A: Elmer Sperry Patent Applications Maturing as PatentsAppendix B: Engineering and Scientific Papers of Elmer Sperry Index

Superb... In this careful study of a single inventor, Hughes has done more to demonstrate the 'questionable' nature of traditional accounts of invention than all of the theoretical arguments of the past few years combined. Technology and Culture

Thomas P. Hughes is professor of the history of modern science and technology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include Changing Attitudes toward American Technology and Networks of Power:Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930.

• PrefaceIntroduction1. The Cultivation of an Inventor2. Chicago: The Maturing of an Inventor3. The Inventor-Entrpreneur4. The Gyrostabilizer: A Very Powerful Fulcrum in Space5. Harnessing the Rotation of the Earth: TheGyrocompass6. Organized Experimentation and Development: The Sperry Gyroscope Company7. A Beast of Burden Obsessed with motion: Stabilizing the Airplane8. Brainmill for the Military9. The Assumption of Leadership: The Naval Consulting Board and the Aerial Torpedo10. Fulfillment and LegacyAppendix A: Elmer Sperry Patent Applications Maturing as PatentsAppendix B: Engineering and Scientific Papers of Elmer Sperry Index

Superb... In this careful study of a single inventor, Hughes has done more to demonstrate the 'questionable' nature of traditional accounts of invention than all of the theoretical arguments of the past few years combined. Technology and Culture