The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-11-10

tress received the report she set down | opera-g glasses, could see from the decks | of the fleet of excursion boats most oi | the details of operation On a cable
 suspended beneath the body of the ship they saw a weight which from ! time to time moved back and forward. 1 When it was moved toward the rear or
 the airship the prov was elevated and
 the whirring propellers drove the craft
 upward at an angle. When the weight
 was drawn forward the great cigar like object turned on it's own axis and slowly pointed earthward As soon as the weight was stopped in the center the ship moved on an even keel.
 Presently the air vessel made wide
 and graceful sweep in a full circle, part
 of the time necessarily travelling
 against the breeze. This proved sufti- ciently the absolute dirigibility of the
 contrivance Count Zeppelin then
 pointed it toward the village of Imen-
 stadt and put on some speed, making
 three and three-quarter miles in seVen-
 teen minutes. A slight accident to one
 of Fhe rudders prevented any further
 experimenting on that day, and the
 airship came down upon the lake so
 gently that there was not the least shock to those in tEe aluminium cars,
 which also act. at boats when the ship
 strikes the water Count Zeppelin ex-
 pressed himself as entirely satisfied
 with the results of the trip. No other
 trial was made at the time. The craft
 was returned to it's floating quarters,
 and after the necessary repairs had
 been made the inventor and his assist ants set themselves to the problem of
 decreasing the weight of the ship. De- spite it's great size and it's volume of
 nearly fifteen thousand cubic yards, it weighed with cars and crew, only elev- en tons; but the possibility of decreas- ing this weight without sacrificing sta bility meant the capacity for just so much more weight and consequent horse power in the propelling engines,
 What alterat tions and improvements Count Zeppelin made in consequence of the first trial he has not revealed, but 1t is assumed that they were of consld- erable extent since it was three months and a half before the great machine was again brought out. Meantime cer- tain critics had suggested that the navigation of the ship in all directions may have been nothing more than ekilful taking advantage of the air currents which flow in different direc- tions at different heights. Attention was called to the fact that balloonist had once, on a wager traversed the three sides of an aerial triangle by raising and lowering his balloon to catch the various currents, and it was hinted that Count Zeppelin could have done the same without any machinery or motor power. This last trial, of October 17, however, has completely re- futed that theory. The airship trav- eled six miles with the wind, which was blowing about ten miles an hour Then turning and without rising or falling from the air stratum of about twelve hundred feet in which it was travelling, it came back against a breeze at a good rate. It then went through number of man. turning and twisting, rising and falling for an hour, and those spectators who had seen 1t on it's ini- tial trip declared that it travelled at a 'aster rate O. speed and answered it's rudders and altitude shifting weight l more promptly on this occasion than | before.
 Count Zeppelin is said to have ex- pressed belief that a few improve nents will render his ship capable of | , speed of thirty miles an hour, In | spite of the fact that he is over seven y years old and has spent thirty years If hard work on his invention he in- tends to continue the work with una oated vigor. He considers the problem | If aerial navigation solved but there must be 9 great advance in construc- lion along the lines he has laid down before the airship has become a ship )f cornmerce.-New York Sun.