Although the apparent effect of Earth’s rotation on gyroscopes was first shown by Léon

Foucault in 1852, the ability to construct sufficiently accurate units did not exist until
the first decade of the 20th century. The first seaworthy gyrocompass was produced in
1908 by the firm of Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe in Germany. It was largely made
possible through the efforts of Max Schuler, who developed the principles on which a
practical shipborne gyrocompass depends. This compass was a marvel of mechanical
ingenuity. In 1911 Elmer Sperry in the United States produced a gyrocompass that was
easier to manufacture. In England, Sidney George Brown, working with John Perry
along similar lines as Sperry, produced a gyrocompass in 1916. Later the Arma
Corporation in the U.S. produced a unit that was a modification of the Anschütz.

All gyrocompasses operate on the same basic principle. They differ in their methods of
supporting the gyroscopic element (the spinning wheel) and of applying
the pendulosity which is required for the north-seeking property and in the means used
to damp out oscillations and thus cause the unit to settle on north.

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Operating Principles
One form of gyroscope is a spinning wheel mounted so that the direction of its spin axis
has universal rotational freedom. The spin allows the mass, or inertial, properties of the
material in the wheel to be used continuously and thereby gives rise to a relatively large
gyroscopic momentum or inertia in a moderate-sized wheel. The important property of
a practical gyroscope is its angular momentum—the product of its spin and its inertia
about the spin axis. This quantity is a vector, since it has both direction and magnitude.
The angular momentum vector may be conveniently represented by curling the fingers
of the right hand in the rotational sense of the spin, the extended thumb of the hand
then pointing in the direction of the angular momentum vector. The angular momentum
is nearly parallel to the spin axis in a practical gyrocompass.

yro compasses are linked to the repeater compasses via one transmission system. The
fast-spinning rotor attached weighs from 1.25 pounds to 55 pounds. It is driven
thousands of revolutions per minute by another electric motor. However, the most
essential part in a Gyro compass system is the spinning wheel, which is known as the
Gyroscope.

Working
External magnetic fields which deflect normal compasses cannot affect Gyro
compasses. When a ship alters its course the independently driven framework called
‘Phantom’ moves with it, but the rotor system continues to point northward. This lack of
alignment enables it to send signal to the driving motor, which moves the phantom step
in with the rotor system again in a path where the phantom may have crossed only a
fraction of a degree or several degrees of the compass circle. As soon as they are
aligned, electrical impulses are sent by the phantom to the repeater compasses for
each degree it traverses.