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Show MECHANICAL PILOTS STEER TORPEDOES UNERRINGLY AT TARGETS first gyroscope was completed, ac- , cording to William Heinle, superintendent superin-tendent and Holland Nordquist, chief designer of the plantt who had a hand in designing much of the machinery. From the plant, the majority of the gyroscopes are shipped to the factory of he Amertorp company, a subsidiary of the American Can company, com-pany, where finished torpedoes are being manufactured. The finished torpedo which, foot for foot and pound for pound, has been called the most expensive and delicate of all naval "vessels," is , - ""'it jf" "' ' F -M ' $ " -',; Modern Science Brings Forth Amazing Devices To Defeat Axis Powers NEW YORK. A gray cylinder packed with destructive power sufficient suf-ficient to knock out an armor-plated behemoth of the seas plunges through the water toward an Axis target. Neither waves nor ocean currents swerve it from its course. The enemy battleship an example exam-ple of modern industrialism at its belligerent best shifts desperately in an unsuccessful attempt to dodge this doom-laden missile of mid-20th century science and ingenuity. The speeding cylinder strikes and the ocean-going fortress lurches. Water Wa-ter geysers into the air as the ship shudders to an explosion whose reverberations re-verberations reach into the stratosphere. strato-sphere. An American-made torpedo, with a mechanical brain and a mechanical mechan-ical crew more efficient than the best of human beings, has provided the blow that counts out another Axis battleship. Although little has yet been written writ-ten of the torpedo, it is one of the most intricately constructed and delicately del-icately balanced achievements of present-day armament. Much of the mechanism which makes the torpedo tor-pedo apparently motivate with the logic of a highly trained human mind must remain sealed against public knowledge for the duration. However, that which can be told reveals how once again the marvels of modern science have been harnessed har-nessed to the war effort. The "brainpower" of the torpedo is the gyroscope, revolving at an all but incalculable speed. Once the course of the torpedo is set, the gyro with weirdly human power directs di-rects it on its way, counteracting its slight inclination to divert from the target. Thus serving as a mechanical pilot, pi-lot, the gyroscope has the seemingly uncanny power of pulling the torpedo tor-pedo back into line regardless of what conflicting forces it encounters. The present-day "gyro" is the intricate in-tricate development of what earlier in the century was a child's toy. It was back in 1911 that American Former watchmakers accustomed to the most exacting of precision work assemble the gyroscopes. more than 20 feet long, weighs about 3,000 pounds and costs about $12,000. Each torpedo carries its own "engine "en-gine room" in which the motor which sends it speeding through the water is anchored. First of the torpedo's tor-pedo's four sections is the warhead which contains hundreds of pounds of powerful explosive. In the second sec-ond section in the center is a big compressed-air chamber. The third section contains fuel, water and lubricating lu-bricating oil for use in the engine room, which is in the fourth section. At the tail end or the fourth section are vertical and horizontal rudders, similar in theory to those on an airplane air-plane and two four-bladed propellers propel-lers which turn in opposite directions. (L.J 3 Each part of a gyroscope must be checked for the tiniest of scratches or the most minute of cracks. This worker studies one of the jewel-like parts of a "gyro." youngsters played with a top which could be placed at an angle on a slim pedestal and would keep its balance. Then, Elmer Sperry pointed out the "gyro's" potentialities to the U. S. navy and it became a weapon of war. However, even during World War No. 1, the gyroscope had not reached its present-day perfection and there are said to be a number of cases when this precision pilot's failure to function properly caused a torpedo to circle on its course and sink its own ship. So delicately adjusted is this high powered and efficient piece of mechanism mech-anism no larger than a clenched fist that a speck of dust or an extra drop of oil on the bearing from a hypodermic needle can destroy its balance or reduce its speed. Parts of the gyro are measured to one ten-thousandth of an inch. The average American can best comprehend com-prehend what such measurements mean when he understands that a human hair is only 25 one-thousandths of an inch in diameter. In an eastern plant of the American Amer-ican Can company, which is making mak-ing records in the manufacture of these "instruments that think," a group of the nation's most expert watchmakers work on the assembly of the gyroscope in a glassed-in room as carefully guarded from dust as a hospital nursery is from germs. Conversion of the plant, which formerly for-merly produced precision machinery for the manufacture of tin containers, contain-ers, is one of the industrial romances of the nation's war effort. Asked by Washington to convert to production of gyroscopes, the company found it necessary to design and construct special machines for the making of gyro parts. Six months later, the |