BROOKE, Thomas P.

BROOKE, Thomas P. (Dubuque, IA-- ). Brooke began demonstrating his musical talents at an early age in Dubuque. He played slide trombone in the Key City Band and was a string artist in orchestras. He left Dubuque around 1881 and later organized the Chicago Marine Band. (1)

     This most energetic and resourceful conductor-composer-administrator 
     not only displayed lots of 'savvy' in his programming but managed to 
     surround himself with the best musicians. He engaged two of the finest 
     cornet players in the world, Bohumir Kryl and James D. Llewellyn, as 
     well as French hornist Anton Horner..."

     ...probably Brooke's most important move (historically) was the introduction 
     to the public (8-31-98) of the first rag-time selection, classed as a "Patrol," 
     entitled "The Mississippi Rag" by Krell. This composition was the forerunner 
     of Scott Joplin's earliest rag by a year. During 1900 Brooke and His Band played 
     what are believed to be the first rag-time band concerts in New Orleans. Brooke's         
     appearance there was timely and his influence on the musicians was profound...
     Equally as much as Sousa, Brooke knew what to give the public." (2)

Being a famous bandmaster, Brooke often found himself driving during the early years of automobiles. In the winter of 1906, he realized he often had the rear wheels of his automobile skid slowly over snow covered street without leaving any tracks in the snow, showing that some force had lifted the rear end of a two-ton car entirely off the ground. His investigations by experimentation indicated to him that the gyroscopic force generated by his motor's flywheel was responsible for the phenomenon. He immediately realized the tremendous importance of his discovery to aviation, in which he was deeply interested. He gave up his professional and business interests and devoted his entire time and his personal fortune to investigation and experiment.

Three years of research convinced him that gyroscopic force created in a revolving motor, or in the flywheel of a motor, in an airplane in free flight was an especially dangerous and apparently erratic force. The principal source of its danger lay in a phase of its action that had been entirely ignored--the acceleration of the precession of the gyroscope when in free suspension.

Mr. Brooke’s work in this special field covered a period of over six years. Up to April, 1910, he was entirely alone in his warnings against this danger; then the Scientific American for the first time in print blamed gyroscopic action for the deaths of two pilots. As accident after accident occurred in which the airplanes behaved in almost exactly the same manner, and as no plausible cause could be found to fit, belief in the Brooke theory gained strength. (3) Brooke's research led to the realization of the gyroscopic effects caused by the propeller.

Brooke also patented other improvements in airplanes. One his inventions allowed the "cutting out of either side of the motor at the will of the pilot." This allowed one side of the motor to rest while the other was in motion. At any time, the pilot could also engage both sides. (4) He also invented the four-cycle Non-Gyro Motor which weighed only 176 pounds but which could generate 75-85 horse-power. (5)

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Source:

1. "Former Dubuquer Makes Discovery," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, April 30, 1911, Part II, p. 1

2. Williams, Frederick P. "Willow Grove Concerts 1896-1925," Willow Grove Park. Online: http://www.wgpark.com/performer.asp-page=16.html

3. Pearson, Ralph M. "Gyroscopic Action--A Menace to Aviation," Self-published, Chicago, Illinois, 1914. Online: http://microship.com/articles/gyroscopic-action-a-menace-to-aviation/

4. "Former Dubuquer..."

5. Ibid.