Main content

The gyroscope: a remarkable device used to guide everything from submarines to satellites. They’re also integral to drones, a technology some believe will transform how we shop.

When the HMS Victory sank in 1744, with it went an inventor named John Serson and a device he’d dreamed up. He called it the “whirling speculum”, but we now know the basic idea as a gyroscope. Serson thought it could help sailors to navigate when they couldn’t see the horizon. Nowadays gyroscopes are tiny and, as Tim Harford describes, they are used to guide everything from submarines to satellites, from rovers on Mars to the phone in your pocket. They are also integral to drones – a technology that some believe could transform how we do our shopping. But for that, they’ll need to work in all weathers.

Image: A gyroscope (Credit: Getty Images)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Mon 15 Apr 201903:50GMT
BBC World Service South Asia

More episodes

Previous

Cellophane

Next

QWERTY

See all episodes from 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

Broadcasts

  • Sat 13 Apr 201904:50GMT
    BBC World Service except Australasia, East and Southern Africa, East Asia & South Asia
  • Sat 13 Apr 201913:50GMT
    BBC World Service News Internet
  • Sun 14 Apr 201914:50GMT
    BBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East Asia & South Asia
  • Sun 14 Apr 201921:50GMT
    BBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
  • Sun 14 Apr 201922:50GMT
    BBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
  • Mon 15 Apr 201903:50GMT
    BBC World Service South Asia

Podcast