ELMER A. SPERRY: PIONEER OF MODERN NAVAL TECH ELMER A.

A historic item from an inventor... Elmer A. Sperry: Pioneer of Modern Naval Tech Elmer A. Sperry casts a long shadow over the history of modern naval and aeronautical technology, few people know much, but they should, for a man crowned and the father". of modern navigation technology' and 'father of automatic feedback and control systems', as well as a pioneer of rocket and missile technology. "It is safe to say that no American has contributed so much to our naval technical progress," eulogized Charles Francis Adams III, Secretary of the Navy from 1929-1933, on the death of engineering genius Elmer Ambrose Sperry, June 16, 1930 , at 69. Appointed to a newly formed Naval Advisory Board in 1915, Sperry spent the next decade working closely with the Navy, at times with his aviator son Lawrence developing gyrocompasses, stabilizers, autopilots, bomb sights, automatic . fire control systems and powerful searchlights for ships and aircraft. Much of this technology was developed by the Navy in both world wars and continues to be used in some form on ships of all sizes today.