Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer and author (d. 1913)
Ernst Otto Schlick (16 June 1840, Grimma - 10 April 1913, Hamburg) was a German naval engineer. He tried to solve the problem of rolling of ships at sea by installing large gyroscopes. The gyroscopic "stabilizers" gave disappointing or dangerous results in practice. An Englishman before him in 1868, Henry Bessemer had tried to use hydraulics and a spirit level watched by the steersman to stabilize ship rolls, also with dangerous results.
The gyroscopic stabilizer idea was later developed further by the US American inventor Elmer Ambrose Sperry but this system could hold the ship at an extreme angle for prolonged periods. By the time these stabilizers were abandoned, gyroscopes had already found their place in ship navigation as gyrocompasses and in control systems.
1840Jun, 16
Ernst Otto Schlick
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Events on 1840
- 10Feb
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. - 11Feb
La fille du régiment
Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France. - 22May
New South Wales
The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished. - 23Jul
Act of Union 1840
The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union. - 11Oct
Bashir Shihab II
The Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottoman Empire and later is sent to Malta in exile.