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Inventor Sperry's first demonstration of the gyrocompass was in 1910 aboard the Warship Delaware. The Delaware's chief electrician, a stocky, 24-year-old farm boy from North Carolina named Thomas Alfred Morgan, was of great help in installing the mechanism. Next year Inventor Sperry lured Tom Morgan away from the Navy to install other gyro-compasses for the new Sperry Co. Serious, hard-working Tom Morgan applied himself with such vigor that by 1922 he was vice president, had contributed immeasurably to Sperry's rise to dominance in the field of nautical and aeronautical instruments. In 1928 when the company was bought by North American Aviation, Inc. Tom Morgan became president of reorganized Sperry Gyroscope Co.
Since then Inventor Sperry has died, his company has gone through numerous corporate changes and Mr. Morgan has held a dozen or so top-notch aviation jobs —president of Curtiss-Wright Corp., vice president of Eastern Air Transport, president of North American Aviation, president of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce. But he has continued to run Sperry and currently he has offices in Manhattan as president of Sperry Corp., a holding company owning Sperry Gyroscope Co., Inc., Ford Instrument Co. Inc. (rangefinders, etc.), Waterbury Tool Co. (hydraulic variable speed transmissions), Vickers. Inc. (hydraulic pumps), Intercontinent Corp. (exporters of U. S. aircraft and aeronautical products). Last week Sperry Corp. issued its statement for the first half of 1937—net profits from operations $1,186,000, up almost100% from the same period last year.