Gimbal

A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows an object to rotate about an axis, and a set of three gimbals mounted with mutually perpendicular pivot axes lets an object such as a ship's compass, gyroscope, stove or drink holder stay level regardless of the vessel's pitching and rolling. The suspension is sometimes called a Cardan suspension after the Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano, who described it in detail in the 16th century, although the device had already been known since antiquity, first described by Philo of Byzantium in the 3rd century BC.