Louis Brennan
Louis Brennan was an engineer and aero inventor in London. He paid special attention to gyrostats and gyroscopic effects.
He gave his name as Louis Brennan, C.B.. "C.B." may refer to this honor: w:Companion of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath. We have not identified any professional certification that "C.B." could represent, yet.
In 1903 Brennan gave his occupation as Civil and Mechanical Engineer.[1] In 1916 he gave his occupation as Consulting Engineer.[2]
In 1903 he gave his address as Woodlands, Gillingham, County of Kent.[3] In 1916 he gave the address The Savage Club, Adelphia Terrace, County of London.[4]
Elmer Ambrose Sperry makes patent reference to the work with gyroscopes of a certain Brennan, likely this Brennan, as well as so a certain Schlick.[5]
His helicopter patent of 1916 was perhaps the first we've seen which was not published at the time it was granted. It was kept secret because it was judged to have military applications during WWI. Its publication was delayed until 1928, and the document refers to the Section 30 of the Patents and Designs Acts of 1907 and 1916; the law appears to be here
Most of Brennan's work is profoundly connected, with non-British patents referring to the British, and with the later aero-applicable British patents generally referring to the initial Patent GB-1903-27212. His work with gyroscopes ties explicitly into aircraft stability. Ball bearings enter into this. What we would designate as Patent GB-1899-8979 precedes everything, it seems, and it features ball bearings, but it doesn't make explicit any applicability to the gyroscope, which is Brennan's segue into aero-applicability, by way of the gyroscope's connexion to stability.
Brennan is an elegant case in which an inventor goes from mechanisms more generally, into some documented but not emphasized aero-applicability, and then, much later, into outright aero-applicability.
Patents whose inventor or applicant is Louis Brennan
- Patent GB-1903-27212 (English title: Gyrostats Imparting Stability to otherwise Unstable Bodies, Structures or Vehicles, Filing date: 1903-12-11)
- Patent FR-1904-348872 (English title: Method and apparatus giving stability to vehicular bodies which are normally unstable, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1903-27212, Filing date: 1904-11-25)
- Patent US-1904-796893 (English title: Means for imparting stability to unstable bodies, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1903-27212, Filing date: 1904-12-03)
- Patent ES-1904-35129 (English title: Improvements in the way of providing stability to bodies, artifacts and vehicles that are inherently unstable, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1903-27212, Filing date: 1904-12-07)
- Patent IN-1905-78 (English title: Gyrostats for stability to bicycles, motor cars, ships, submarine and aerial vessels, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1903-27212)
- Patent AT-1905-30080 (English title: Device for maintaining the balance of bodies that are not inherently stable, such as bicycles and the like., Filing date: 1905-01-31)
- Patent CA-1905-92599 (English title: Imparting of stability to otherwise unstable bodies, structures, or vehicles, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1903-27212, Filing date: 1905-02-07)
- Patent GB-1909-26034 (English title: Improvement in Means for Imparting Stability to Unstable Bodies, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1903-27212, Filing date: 1909-11-10)
- Patent GB-1909-30417 (English title: Improvements in Lubrication of Bearings for Gyrostats, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1903-27212, Filing date: 1909-12-29)
- Patent US-1910-1183530 (English title: Means for imparting stability to unstable bodies, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1909-26034 • Patent US-1904-796893, Filing date: 1910-01-04)
- Patent AT-1910-53941 (English title: Device to balance unstable bodies, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1909-26034, Filing date: 1910-01-19)
- Patent CH-1910-56204 (English title: Device with gyroscope to give stability to inherently unstable objects, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1909-26034, Filing date: 1910-01-25)
- Patent DK-1910-15497 (English title: Procedure for Regulating Gyrostats and Related Devices, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1909-26034, Filing date: 1910-03-02)
- Patent ES-1910-47591 (English title: An improved system with its corresponding devices to give stability to bodies such as cars and other vehicles that run on monorail tracks, as well as to maintain said stability, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1909-26034, Filing date: 1910-03-17)
- Patent FR-1910-419707 (English title: Improvements to gyroscopic apparatus and their manners of application, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1909-26034, Filing date: 1910-04-15)
- Patent GB-1916-281735 (English title: Improvements relating to aerial navigation, Filing date: 1916-05-19)
References
| Names | Louis Brennan |
|---|---|
| Birth date | |
| Death date | |
| Countries | AT, AU, CA, CH, ES, FR, GB, IT, US |
| Locations | Gillingham, County of Kent; London |
| Occupations | civil engineer, mechanical engineer, consulting engineer |
| Tech areas | Gyroscope, Gyrostats, Stability, Ball bearings, Helicopter |
| Affiliations | |
| Wikidata id |
