Elmer A. Sperry Inducted into Electronic Design Engineering Hall of Fame

Electronic Design, a leading electronics trade magazine, has inducted Elmer A. Sperry (1860-1930) into its Engineering Hall of Fame.

Compared with the honors and recognition Sperry received during his career as a prolific inventor, this latest honor may not seem significant. But the honor is especially meaningful to amateur scientists, for Sperry never completed his plans to major in electrical engineering at Cornell University. After only one year of study, he left college behind. He also left behind a new kind of dynamo that powered arc lamps on the Cornell campus.

During his highly productive career, Sperry founded eight companies and received some 400 patents. His inventions included, railroad track inspection devices, arc lamps, dynamos and many kinds of gyroscopically controlled devices. Sperry's gyroscope designs are his most famous inventions and include autopilots for ships and aircraft and various kinds of guided military ordnance.

In view of his Edison-like legacy, some might find it difficult to think of Sperry as an "amateur." Yet he is reminiscent of Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and a host of other scientists and engineers who lacked formal engineering training and made significant discoveries and inventions.

You can find out more about Elmer Sperry in an Electronics Design article about his latest honor (Lisa Maliniak, "Elmer A. Sperry, One Part Inventor, One Part Entrepreneur," 20 October 2005) and by searching on his name on the web.

Forrest M. Mims III