Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

bid engineered by

Burroughs Corporation The Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. In 1986, it merged with Sperry UNIVAC to form Unisys. The company's history paralleled many ...

, which merged the combined operation under the new name

Unisys Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions, ...

. Some of Sperry's former divisions became part of

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

Raytheon Technologies Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

, and

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

. The company is best known as the developer of the

artificial horizon The attitude indicator (AI), formerly known as the gyro horizon or artificial horizon, is a flight instrument that informs the pilot of the aircraft orientation relative to Earth's horizon, and gives an immediate indication of the smallest or ...

and a wide variety of other gyroscope-based aviation instruments like

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

bombsight A bombsight is a device used by military aircraft to drop bombs accurately. Bombsights, a feature of combat aircraft since World War I, were first found on purpose-designed bomber aircraft and then moved to fighter-bombers and modern tactical ...

s, analog ballistics computers and

gyro gunsight A gyro gunsight (G.G.S.) is a modification of the non-magnifying reflector sight in which target lead (the amount of aim-off in front of a moving target) and bullet drop are calculated automatically. The first examples were developed in Britain ...

s. In the post-WWII era the company branched out into electronics, both aviation related, and later, computers.

History

Early history

The company was founded in 1910 by

Elmer Ambrose Sperry Elmer Ambrose Sperry Sr. (October 12, 1860 – June 16, 1930) was an American inventor and entrepreneur, most famous for construction, two years after Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe, of the gyrocompass and as founder of the Sperry Gyroscope Company. ...

, as the Sperry Gyroscope Company, to manufacture navigation equipment—chiefly his own inventions the marine

gyrostabilizer A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...

and the

gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical direction automatically. The use of a gyroc ...

—at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension in

Downtown Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City after Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is known for its office and r ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the company diversified into aircraft components including

bomb sight A bombsight is a device used by military aircraft to drop bombs accurately. Bombsights, a feature of combat aircraft since World War I, were first found on purpose-designed bomber aircraft and then moved to fighter-bombers and modern tactical ...

s and

fire control system A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a h ...

s. In their early decades, Sperry Gyroscope and related companies were concentrated on Long Island, New York, especially in Nassau County. Over the years, it diversified to other locations. In 1918,

Lawrence Sperry Lawrence Burst Sperry (21 December 1892, Chicago, Illinois, United States – December 13, 1923, English Channel) was an aviation pioneer who invented the autopilot and the artificial horizon. Biography He was the third son of the gyrocompa ...

split from his father to compete over aero-instruments with the ''Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Company'', including the new automatic pilot. After the death of Lawrence on December 13, 1923, the two firms were brought together in 1924. Then in 1929 it was acquired by North American Aviation. The company again became independent in 1933 as the Sperry Corporation. The new corporation was a holding company for a number of smaller entities such as the original Sperry Gyroscope, ''Ford Instrument Company'', ''Intercontinental Aviation, Inc.'', and others. The company made advanced aircraft navigation equipment for the market, including the Sperry Gyroscope and the Sperry Radio Direction Finder. It also moved into the hydraulics industry when it acquired Vickers, Inc. in 1937. Sperry supported the work of a group of Stanford University inventors, led by

Russell and Sigurd Varian Russell Harrison Varian (April 24, 1898 – July 28, 1959) and Sigurd Fergus Varian (May 4, 1901 – October 18, 1961) were American brothers who founded one of the earliest high-tech companie ...

, who had invented the

klystron A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian,Pond, Norman H. "The Tube Guys". Russ Cochran, 2008 p.31-40 which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequen ...

, and incorporated this technology and related inventions into their products. The company prospered during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as military demand skyrocketed, ranking 19th among US corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. It specialized in high technology devices such as

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In ...

–controlled bomb sights,

airborne radar Airborne or Airborn may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis * ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film * ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...

systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. Sperry also was the creator of the

Ball Turret A ball turret was a spherical-shaped, altazimuth mount gun turret, fitted to some American-built aircraft during World War II. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing. It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets ...

Gun mounted under the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, as commemorated by the film '' Memphis Belle'' and the poem ''

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is a five-line poem by Randall Jarrell published in 1945. The poem is about the death of a gunner in a Sperry ball turret on a World War II American bomber aircraft. From my mother's sleep I fell into the St ...

''. Postwar, the company expanded its interests in electronics and computing, producing the company's first digital computer,

SPEEDAC SPEEDAC, the SPErry Electronic Digital Automatic Computer, was an early digital computer built by Sperry Corporation in 1953.Herbert Freeman, ''Cobblestones: The Story of My Life''p. 39/ref> It used 800 vacuum tubes and had magnetic drum storag ...

, in 1953. During the 1950s, a large part of Sperry Gyroscope moved to

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

, Arizona and soon became the Sperry Flight Systems Company. This was to preserve parts of this defense company in the event of a nuclear war. The Gyroscope division remained headquartered in New York—in its massive Lake Success, Long Island, plant (which also served as the temporary

United Nations headquarters zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas , image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg , im ...

from 1946 to 1952)—into the 1980s.

Sperry Rand

In 1955, Sperry acquired

Remington Rand Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand w ...

and renamed itself Sperry Rand. Acquiring then-

Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation The Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) (March 1946 – 1950) was founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. It was incorporated on December 22, 1947. After building the ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania, Eckert and ...

and

Engineering Research Associates Engineering Research Associates, commonly known as ERA, was a pioneering computer firm from the 1950s. ERA became famous for their numerical computers, but as the market expanded they became better known for their drum memory systems. They were ev ...

along with Remington Rand, the company developed the successful

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company an ...

computer series and signed a valuable cross-licensing deal with IBM. The company remained a major military contractor. From 1967 to 1973 the corporation was involved in an acrimonious

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

lawsuit with

, Inc. (see '' Honeywell v. Sperry Rand''). In 1961, Sperry Rand was ranked 34th on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies in the United States. In 1978, Sperry Rand decided to concentrate on its computing interests, and sold a number of divisions including Remington Rand Systems, Remington Rand Machines, Ford Instrument Company and Sperry Vickers. The company dropped "Rand" from its title and reverted to Sperry Corporation. At about the same time as the Rand acquisition, Sperry Gyroscope decided to open a facility that would almost exclusively produce its marine instruments. After considerable searching and evaluation, a plant was built in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in 1956, Sperry Piedmont Division began producing marine navigation products. It was later renamed

Sperry Marine Sperry may refer to: Places In the United States: *Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County *Sperry, Missouri * Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County *Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana *Sperry Glacier, ...

. In the 1970s, Sperry Corporation was a traditional conglomerate headquartered in the Sperry Rand Building at 1290 Avenue of Americas in Manhattan, selling typewriters (Sperry Remington); office equipment, electronic digital computers for business and the military (Sperry Univac); construction and farm equipment (Sperry New Holland); avionics, such as gyroscopes, radars, air route traffic control equipment (Sperry Vickers/Sperry Flight Systems); and consumer products such as electric razors (Sperry Remington). In addition, Sperry Systems Management (headquartered in the original Sperry Gyroscope building in Lake Success) performed work on a number of US government defense contracts. Sperry also managed the operation from 1961 to 1975 of the large

Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant The Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, formerly known as the Louisiana Ordnance Plant or as The Shell Plant, is an inactive plant to load, assemble and pack ammunitions items. During production from 1942 to 1994, the Army disposed of untreated ex ...

near

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

. In January 1972, Sperry took over the RCA line of electronic digital computers (architectural cousins to the IBM System/360). In 1983, Sperry sold Vickers to

Libbey Owens Ford The Libbey-Owens-Ford Company (LOF) was a producer of flat glass for the automotive and building products industries both for original equipment manufacturers and for replacement use. The company's headquarters and main factories were located in T ...

(later to be renamed TRINOVA Corporation and subsequently Aeroquip-Vickers). At the same time, it acquired the

Aircraft Radio Corporation Aircraft Radio Corporation (ARC) – not to be confused with Aeronautical Radio, Inc. (ARINC) – was a principal pioneer and major manufacturer of avionics for military and commercial aircraft, and later general aviation (light) aircraft, from t ...

from Cessna.

Burroughs takeover

On September 16, 1986, after the success of a second

bid engineered by

CEO and former

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

Michael Blumenthal Werner Michael Blumenthal (born January 3, 1926) is a German-American business leader, economist and political adviser who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979. At age thirteen, Blumenth ...

, Sperry Corporation merged with Burroughs Corporation. The newly merged company was renamed Unisys Corporation—a portmanteau of "united", "information", and "systems". The takeover came about even after Sperry used a " poison pill" in the form of a major share price hike to dissuade the hostile bid, the result of which caused Burroughs to borrow much more funding than was anticipated to complete the bid. Certain internal divisions of Sperry were sold off after the merger, such as Sperry New Holland (1986, to

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

, who in 1991 sold the Ford-New Holland line to Fiat) and Sperry Marine (to

Tenneco Tenneco (formerly Tenneco Automotive and originally Tennessee Gas Transmission Company) is an American automotive components original equipment manufacturer and an aftermarket ride control and emissions products manufacturer. It is a Fortune 5 ...

, in 1987, and is currently part of

). Also sold—to

—was Sperry Aerospace Group, while Sperry Defense Products Group was sold to Loral; those two units whose functions were originally at the heart of the venerable Sperry Gyroscope division. This group is now part of

British Sperry

Sperry in Britain started with a factory in Pimlico, London, in 1913, manufacturing gyroscopic compasses for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. It became the Sperry Gyroscope Co Ltd in 1915. In 1923,

was killed in an air crash near

Rye, Sussex is a small town and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, two miles from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. An important member of the mediaeval Cinque Ports confederati ...

. The company subsequently expanded to the

Golden Mile Golden Mile or The Golden Mile may refer to: Geographical features * Golden Mile (Belfast), Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (UK) * Golden Mile (Blackpool), Blackpool, UK * Golden Mile (Brentford), Brentford, UK * Golden Mile (Leices ...

, Brentford in 1931, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire in 1938, and Bracknell in 1957. By 1963, these sites employed some 3,500 people. The Brentford site closed in 1967, with the expansion of Bracknell. Stonehouse closed around 1969. By 1969, the Sperry Gyroscope division of Sperry Rand Corporation employed around 2,500. The site of the Bracknell factory and development center (sold to

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marcon ...

in 1982) is commemorated by a 4.5-meter aluminum sculpture by

Philip Bentham Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

, ''Sperry's New Symbolic Gyroscope'' (1967). In 1989, the Bracknell site was downsized and work was moved to the Sperry manufacturing site in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

by then under the

brand. State of the art, high technology

MEMS Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also written as micro-electro-mechanical systems (or microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems) and the related micromechatronics and microsystems constitute the technology of microscopic devices, ...

gyroscopes (together with other avionics equipment) are still made on the site today, although the company is now owned by

United Technologies Corporation United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems ...

and is part of

UTC Aerospace Systems UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) was one of the world’s largest suppliers of aerospace and defense products, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The company was formed in August 2012 when parent United Technologies Corporation ...

Sperry since 1997

The name Sperry lives on in the company

, headquartered in

New Malden New Malden is an area in South West London, England. It is located mainly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston, Norbiton, Raynes ...

, England. This company, formed in 1997, from three well-known brand names in the marine industry—Sperry Marine,

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

, and C. Plath—is now part of

Corporation. It is a worldwide supplier of navigation, communication, information and automation systems for commercial marine and naval markets.

Products

Aircraft

Missiles and rockets

* Sperry

MGM-29 Sergeant The MGM-29 Sergeant was an American short-range, solid fuel, surface-to-surface missile developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The missiles were built by Sperry Utah Company. The Sergeant was the third and last in a series of JPL rockets for ...

In popular culture

*The 1986 comedy ''

Jumpin' Jack Flash "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as a non-album single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, the song was perceived by some as t ...

'' features many Sperry computers in the bank where the protagonist (played by

Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ' ...

) works.

Jim Belushi James Adam Belushi (; born June 15, 1954) is an American actor. He is best known for the role of Jim on the sitcom ''According to Jim'' (2001–2009). His other television roles include ''Saturday Night Live'' (1983–1985), '' Total Security'' ...

plays the role of a Sperry "repairman".

References

Notes

Bibliography

* *

External links

USStexasbb35.com
Mark 51 Gun director
dreadnoughtproject.org
Director Firing Handbook index from HMS Dreadnought project

Sperry Corporation, UNIVAC Division Photograph Collection
at Hagley Museum and Library
Sperry Gyroscope Company Division records
at Hagley Museum and Library
Sperry Rand Corporation, Engineering Research Associates (ERA) Division records
at Hagley Museum and Library
Sperry Rand Corporation. Remington Rand Division records: Advertising and Sales Promotion Department
at Hagley Museum and Library
Sperry Rand Corporation, Univac Division records
at Hagley Museum and Library
Sperry-UNIVAC records
at Hagley Museum and Library {{Authority control Albemarle County, Virginia American companies established in 1910 American companies disestablished in 1986 Avionics companies Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies based in Nassau County, New York Companies based in Phoenix, Arizona Computer companies established in 1910 Computer companies disestablished in 1986 Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct manufacturing companies based in Arizona Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state) Defunct manufacturing companies based in Virginia Defunct computer companies of the United States Electronics companies established in 1910 Electronics companies disestablished in 1986 Honeywell Instrument-making corporations Technology companies established in 1910 Technology companies disestablished in 1986 Town of North Hempstead, New York Unisys