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| Kenyon Laboratories -circa about 1959 |
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| Chester Airport - Connecticut -Ted & Teddy's Plane |
| Same building with addition |
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| Building still stands today |
| The Machine Shop |
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| Balancing the Gyro Wheels |
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| Winding the Motors |
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| Assembling the Gyros |
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| Henry Evacuating and Inducing Helium in the Gyros |
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| as well as Testing the Speed of the Wheels |
Henry Struck, as a 16 year old freshman, studied in the aero engineering field
at CCNY Engineering School. He never did finish his studies, he found it hard to fit in due to his being much younger than
the other students. Nevertheless, he became legendary as a model airplane designer, builder and contest flyer. He held many
records and was well known for his innovative designs and his perfectionist nature in flight adjustment. He was known to keep
his hair a particular length....short, so he could feel the thermals tickle the back of his neck. Henry would clap his hands
in childlike delight when one of his models would fly so far as to never be seen again. He would put his name and address
on his models and occasionally, perhaps a boy would find one in a tree and it would come back to Henry....via the mail. Henry
was a humble flyer who always had a look of amazement every time he won, never believing he was a master. Henry was often
invited to lecture on his designs. One particular occasion, he stood behind the podium and displayed a paper covered clothes
hanger to the audience. He deftly bent the wire into shape and launched it out into the audience. It flew flawlessly around
the room and landed perfectly at his feet. The crowd roared with approval. Henry was always amazed that he was amazing.
He was honored in the Hall of Fame of the AMA, National Free Flight Society and the Society
of Antique Modelers. In 1941, he was Grand Champion at the Chicago Nationals. Henry set the record for free flying gas powered
models in 1950. This model as well as one of his Berkeley model designs is included in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
collection. Fifty Struck designs were published and 45 were produced as kits.
Henry was first employed as a draftsman at Berkeley Models. When WWII broke out, Henry found
himself in Lyme, Ct. working on specialized classified projects including the first supersonic flight made in the United States.
He became part of an elite team of scientist who were glider experts employed at the Pratt Read Co. He also did research for
Roger Griswold and continued on after the war with Luddington-Griswold and others. A licensed pilot, he did a lot of work
in experimental aircraft design. Then in 1958, Henry went to work for Ted as a design engineer.
| One of Henry's patented designs |
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| His notes "curved tip & single rubber band" |
Business was prospering for Kenyon Labs and Gyrostabilizer
Corp. with gyro orders from the Navy, Air Force, Life Magazine, National Geographic, M.I.T. and the New York Port Authority.
Ted was still improving on his Marine instrument patents and since 1954, Ted had been working with Aeroflex on his patent
for Gyro Vertical Construction. The patent wasn't granted until December of 1961. About a year and a half earlier, a Mr. Hussey
of Aeroflex had purchased 51% of Kenyon Laboratories stock and paid Earnest Pallme to run the company as Vice President and
General Manager. Meanwhile, Ted was working in his lab on a new gyro that they all felt was badly needed. Unfortunately, in
March of 1961, Kenyon Laboratories was forced into bankruptcy due to the fact that Aeroflex had lent the company a large amount
of money and Kenyon Labs found themselves owing quite a sum of money in unpaid bills. Sadly, Kenyon Labs closed the doors
at the airport and the company once again went back to Ted and Teddy's home in Lyme.
Ted's patents that were once assigned to Kenyon Laboratories were fortunately reverted back to him
and he began his new company, T.W. Kenyon, Inc. He then began the daunting task of trying to rebuild Kenyon Laboratories to
be successful once again. By the end of 1963, business was picking up slowly and after living hand to mouth, they began to
have hopes that the hard times were behind them.
In February of 1964, a distressing letter arrived for T.W. Kenyon, Inc., it was from a firm
of lawyers who represented the company of Kenyon Instruments Co. requesting assurance that Ted would promptly discontinue
the use of the word Kenyon in any name, product or trademark. This was the very same company Ted started in New York in 1937.
With disbelief, Ted began a year long battle to try to retain the right to use his own name.
What seems to have transpired was that Kenyon Instrument (which was then bought out
by Flexible Tubing Corp.) was building inferior speedometers and many people had asked Ted if he could get the company to
do a better job, but he got nowhere with them. Ted decided that he would bring out a new, improved and thoroughly modern speedometer
which had been tested for a good year and a half on his own boat. He began marketing it early in 1963 and
at his lawyers suggestion, the new instrument was called "Kenlog" and was manufactured by T.W. Kenyon, Inc.
Flexible Tubing Corp. sent up representatives and afterwards made a feeble attempt
to buy his new speedometer, but they would not pay anywhere near what Ted thought it was worth. They had been working on a
new speedometer for some time, but had not got one on the market yet, although they were advertising heavily. Ted realized
that they undoubtedly resented his coming into the picture and were going to make it as difficult as possible.
Back and forth the arguement relented. Neither side wanted to give in. By October, Ted had
enough and decided to change the name of the company to Ken-Lab, Inc. and all marine products would be known as KENLOG, KENMILE,
KENKNOT, KENSTEER, etc. He tried to keep the Kenyon name for the gyros, but Flexible Tubing even argued that it was
known that gyros were attached to binoculars and used on boats.
By April of 1965, a settlement was finally agreed upon. T.W. Kenyon was dissolved. Ted would
be able to market the gyros as Kenyon Stabilizers and could not refer to them as instruments or be marketed with name Kenyon
to anyone concerned with marine applications. Ken-Lab, Inc. was accepted as the name of the company, but no marine products
could be sold using the word Kenyon in any way. Finally Ted could move on and concentrate on his business. He did get the
last laugh by selling the speedometer patent to Danforth in Maine for a sizeable amount of money!
Ted soon decided to begin another business by the
name Square Circle, Inc. to build the gyro stabilizers. He was favored by two large orders from the Navy for over 200 gyros.
Chiefly, as a result of the Vietnam requirements, increased evidence of need for a stabilized optical viewing device was apparent.
By this time, gyro stabilizers had been bought by Hamilton Standard, Bureau of Standards, Atomic Energy Commision, the U.S.
Army, Marine Corps and Air Force.
Throughout Ted and Teddy's lives, they associated with so many interesting and well known
people. One favorite story is that of how every year, Ted would get together with two good friends and sail out to Block Isalnd
for a getaway. Those friends were L. Francis Herreshoff, son of Nathanael Herreshoff, both well known wooden boat designers,
and the one and only Albert Einstein. They would stay up for days in drunken abandon discussing their ideas and problems with
the projects they were working on at the time. Ted and L. Francis would take great delight in sailing around the island and
then let Einstein attempt to sail the boat back to the mooring. He would always fail miserably and they found that incredibly
amusing.
Years went by with normal ups and downs. Ted became ill
yet continued to work and putter on his projects. He passed away in 1978 and the business then became Teddy's. She had always
been involved with the business, so she naturally was the one to carry it on with the help of Henry and Karl Jonason, the
machine shop supervisor. Unfortunately, Karl had decided it was time to retire at the same time, this would have left Henry
on his own to do everything.
Machining was not Henry's favorite task,
he prefered the assembly process of the gyros. But Henry had been having a bad reaction to the epoxy that is used to glue
the gyros together, so he needed help.
Henry's daughter, Christine, had
been involved with a talented young man by the name of Ron Denman. Ron offered his help at night after he got out of work
at the marina and glued the gyros for Henry. Ron never did get to meet Ted, but he did develop a quick understanding of how
the gyros worked and how they were made. With the departure of Karl, and his refusal to train anyone, the company desperately
needed someone to help with the machining. Ron began to teach himself how to run the machines necessary to build the gyros.
This required learning how to use the bridgeport milling machine, the lathes and all the other tool room equipment. Building
a gyro back then was a long tedious process. The frames were rough sand castings that needed to be machined so they were usable.
The tungsten used for the wheels were also rough misshapen blobs that needed to be turned into precision wheels.
Tungsten is hard and gnarly to machine, so it was time consuming. Of the hundreds of parts needed to build one gyro,
only a small percentage were made outside such as the bearings, motor laminations, screws and electrical components. Everything
else was made in house and required jigs and fixtures to be made for every part.
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