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THE TORPEDO
181
a course, the direction in which it is first aimed from the
launching tube, or the gear can be so adjusted that the tor-
pedo can be fired in one direction and after running a cer-
tain distance the gyroscopic influence of the gear acting
on the rudders will cause it to take up and continue an
entirely different course.
This can be better understood by a short description
of the gyroscope which is the essential part of the Obry
gear. The principle of the gyroscope is that a flywheel
which is spinning with a high momentum in a certain plane
has a very strong tendency to continue spinning in that
plane and to resist any effort to turn it into another plane.
The actuating force of the gyroscopic flywheel is given by
the tension of a very strong coil spring, or as in some of
the most recent designs by a small electric motor. The
axis of the gyroscopic wheel being once placed in a fore
and aft direction in the torpedo and the spinning set up,
no matter how it turns to right or left the spinning gyro-
scope, by its inherent directive force, built up of a composi-
tion of centrifugal force and gravity, will cause the torpedo
to turn back to its original course. If we wish to send the
torpedo in a direction different from the direction of the
launching tube, the gyroscope is turned into the plane of
the direction in which it is desired the torpedo shall run
and the spinning of the flywheel started. The action of
the gyroscope upon the steering rudders is then such as to
cause the torpedo to be swung into the desired direction
and held there.
The importance of this latter method is shown by the
method of attack of a destroyer, the tubes of which are
situated on the main deck well amidships. In making a
head-on attack these tubes are swung diagonally across