The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1909-07-16
STORY OF COUNT ZEPPELIN.
Interesting Career of Famous German
Aeronaut.

OF all the men now engaged in the study
of aviation, none has had "a more interest
ing career than Count Zeppelin, whose
fight of nearly thousand miles last
week broke all previous records Until
success came, his hradships were almost
unbelievable, and he spent the whole Of
| his fortune in carrying out his expert
ments. His first interest in aerial flight
probably dates from the American Civi
war, when he made an ascent in a captive
| balloon to watch the operations. Aftel
| this, he returned to Germany in time foI
| the FrancoGerman war, and is said ia
| have been the first German soldier who
crossed the frontier into France. When
peace was restored, he determined to give
his whole life to aeronautics, and in a
Comparatively short time he had spent
100000 in what appeared to be almost
fruitless effort. At one time he was so
poor through his devotion to his work
that he had to live in little cottage on
an allowance made to him by his friends.
But his invincibe pluck brought success
at last and one of the first to recognize
his genius was the kaiser himself.
Although he is considerably over sew
enty, Count Zeppelin is still as active as
newspaper has described him as follows:
'He stands tall and upright; he has an
agile body capable of unusual exertion,
constitution sturdy through much exer-
else and simple habits, and an immense
power of mental concentration. He is al
ways amiable, modest and deliberate. His
workmeh are devoted to him heart and
soul" Through all his many failures, and
during the dark time when bis nearest
friends looked upon him as next door to
a madman, the count has had the contin-
when her husbands experiments brought
her to the verge of poverty, she still had
perfect faith in him, and never MUIR
INJURED. 1t must have been proud day
for the countess when the king and queen
of Wurtemberg took trip in the counts
airship. and prouder day still when the
kaiser caller her husband ''the greatest
German of the twentieth century"
On more than one occasion, Count Hsp-
pelip has come very near to losing his
life. Once, for instance he fell from a
height of forty feet. but escaped serious
injury through landing upon some bushes.
Another time, he fell a considerable dis
tance upon some soft earth. Of course,
he has had many more or less serious dis
asters to his airships, and only last year
he had particularly narrow escape.
Shortly after landing at Echterdingen,
there were such large crowds to welcome
him that to avoid am ovation, Ne retired
to a cabin on the airship and fell asleep |
BY some lucky chance he did not sleep |
for long, but only a few minutes after he
awoke, the airship was in flames, and had |
he remained asleep, his fate would have |
been almost certain. 1t is said, by the |
way, that Count Zeppelin was once in |
such despair of ever achieving his ends |
that he seriously thought of blowing his
brains out.
Not the least vexing of Zeppelin's wor-
ries has been the statement that the real
inventor of the Zeppelin airship was not
he count at all, but deceased Hunga,
rian engineer. 1t was stated that this
mans widow used to receive a pension
rom Zeppelin in consideration of the fact
hat she had sold the secret of her late
invention to a syndicate OF
which the count was the head. This story
las received a good deal of attention by
he counts enemies and it was even ru-
nored some time ago that Zeppelin was
bout to fight duel with a certain officer
because the latter had publicly asserted
he truth of the Hungarian engineer story.
If course, no well-informed people believe
hese absurd rumors; and today, not only
" Germany but by every other civilized
ountIy. the count Is regarded as one OF
he greatest inventors the world has ever
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