Exciting Objects for Historical Research—Mechanical Gyroscopes in Germany Between 1925 and 1975

ABSTRACT The contribution presents a dissertation project in the history of science and technology that uses gyro instruments as objects of historical research, offering exciting opportunities for investigation using a wide variety of methodological approaches. This paper presents one example, an expert actor, of the following issues that the dissertation reveals more thoroughly. As material sources, these gyro instruments reveal the maturation and closing of technology during the 1920s to 1940s and its impact on the actors and institutions associated with it. With the look at early, open gyroscopes one can trace the maturation and thus closing process of technology: gyroscopes then became the instruments that one knows today, that is, artificial horizons. The focus is here on mechanical gyroscopes between ca. 1925 and 1975 in Germany: First, as direct display devices in aircraft cockpits and, in other examples, as parts of automatic control systems. Not only long lines of continuity in technology can be found but also at the expert and user levels. In addition to researching the habitus of communities in professional societies and through objects, invisible hands, here in research and manufacturing, can also be made visible again through object research approaches. Objects are also used by gyro experts to place their own achievements outside the community. Overall, this work is a plea for the investigation of (gyro) instruments, especially in view of the successful use of objects as historical sources.