Pyotr Petrovich Schilovsky () (September 22, 1872 – June 30, 1955 in

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

) was a Russian count, jurist, statesman, and governor of

Kostroma Kostroma (, ) is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian cities, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma. In the 2021 census, the population is 267, ...

from 1910 to 1912 and of

Olonets Governorate Olonets Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, extending from Lake Ladoga almost to the White Sea, bounded west by Finland, north and east by Arkhangelsk and Vologda, and south by Novgorod and ...

from 1912 to 1913. He is best known as the inventor of the gyrocar, which was built under his direction by the Wolseley Tool and Motorcar Company beginning in 1912, and was demonstrated for the first time in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in April 1914. In 1922, Schilovsky emigrated to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. File:Portrait of the governor of the Olonets province P. P. Shilovsky.jpg, P. P. Shilovsky in 1913

Gyrocar

After developing a model gyro monorail in 1911, he designed a gyrocar which was built by Wolseley Motors Limited and tested on the streets of London in 1913. Since it used a single gyro, rather than the counter-rotating pair favoured by Brennan and Scherl, it exhibited

asymmetry Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...

in its behaviour, and became

unstable In dynamical systems instability means that some of the outputs or internal state (controls), states increase with time, without bounds. Not all systems that are not Stability theory, stable are unstable; systems can also be marginal stability ...

during sharp left hand turns. It attracted interest but no serious funding. The gyrocar was rediscovered in 1938, when workmen uncovered its remains in the Ward End property of Wolseley. Although it had been buried it was said the chassis was in excellent condition, the engine turned over and the gyros still pivoted, the main issue was damage to the aluminium bodywork. After being excavated, it was transferred into the Wolseley Museum.In 1948, Wolseley had run out of storage space and the remains were scrapped "https://www.hemmings.com/stories/that-time-wolseley-buried-a-russian-counts-two-wheeled-gyro-car-because-it-ran-out-of-storage-space/"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shilovsky, Pyotr Petrovich 1871 births 1957 deaths Nobility from the Russian Empire Governors of Kostroma Governorate Governors of Olonets Governorate Jurists from the Russian Empire Inventors from the Russian Empire Imperial School of Jurisprudence alumni White Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom