Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-01-05
Correspondence.


~ ERLIN, Dec. 25.-There is at
* least one person in this country
the bearer moreover, of his
toric title to whom the recent
achievements of Santos Dumont and
the Wright brothers must have been
especially CALLING, and that person is
Count Ferdinand Zeppelin. References
to this German nobleman's prolonged
experiments with airships and dirigi-
BILE balloons cannot fail to have been
noticed by American newspaper read
ers, but they may not know how truly
the term, "a martyr to science" APP
plies to him. The venerable counts
story, however, may be summed up
in a single sertence-he has sacrificed
half century of time. his wealth. his
estates, his reputation, his happiness.
his family life. in futile attempt to
solve the problem of flying.
ANCIENT NOBILITY.
ancient branch of the German no.
bility His ancestors were doughty
knights of Mecklenburg 1000 years
ago, and the name of Zeppelin has
been prominent in German and Aus
trian history during all the interview
ing centuries. The senior branch of
the family resides In Austria and the
junior branch. which separated from
the senior branch about $50 years ago.
resides in Germany.
Count Ferdinand Zeppelin inherited
as his birthright a magnificent landed
estate at Gyslar In the kingdom of
Wurtemberg, together with a resi-
dence at Stuttgart and other landed
property in Switzerland. His father
was just an ordinary nobleman. and
he himself was brought UP in n way
that was suitable for the scion of such
an ancient house. But at an early age
he showed n remarkable taste for
certain forms of mechanical inyen-
ton. All his ancestors had been war
riors and statesmen. but he was en-
dowed with an inventive genius.
When youth instead of entering
the army and living the life of gay
young nobleman, he devoted his time
to mechanical experiments and scien-
tific study. His father despaired OF
him and his mother regarded him
almost as a lunatic. His fellow NOBLE
men ridlculed his efforts and even his
interiors In rank pointed him out as
the aristocrat who had abandoned all
the tastes and pursuits of the aristoc-
racy in order TO devote himself to the
plebian task of inventing machines.
RIDICuLED AND MoCKED.
Those who knew that 1t was the
problem OF aerial navigation that was
occupying his attention overwhelmed
him with ridicule and Knocked at his
craze, for II must be remembered that
when Count Ferdinand Zeppelin be-
gan his attempts to solve the problem
of dying aeronautics were far from
being so advanced as at the present
day.
He began TO study the problem of
flying when he was IS years of age,
in the year 1856. To think of the
world as II was so years ago, one can
imagine how ludicrous Count Zeppe-
Inns attempts appeared to his contem-
poraries. Railways were in their in
fancy; steamships We're a novelty;
telegraph lines were few and far be-
tween; there We're no electric rail-
ways, no motor cars. no telephones.
no wireless telegraphy. and many
other things which We regard as u
matter of course did not exist. 1t is,
therefore. fully comprehensive that
Count Ferdinand zeppelin's contem-
poraries regarded him rather as
inadman than as genius