The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-27
AERIAL eATTLEsHIPs.

AERIAL BATTLEsHIPs.
McCure's Magazine for August con-
tains an article on The Aerial Battle
ship" by Carl Dienstbach and T. r.
MacMechen. which is OF more than ordi-
nary interest and Importance at the
present time. Louis Bleriot has just
made a successful flight over the British
channel showing the great possibilities
I'm that direction. and the aeroplane Of
the Wright brothers is being tested at
Fort Myer in this country by army Off
GERS for possible wax purposes. At the
present time Germany has a long lead
in the matter of aerial warships. owing
TO the wonderful inventions of Count
Ferdinand Won Zeppelin. Two of his
airshps, the Zeppelin I and Zeppelin
II, have been purchased by the Ger
man government and regularly COM
missioned as warships Ii is stated that
the Zeppelin II, on May %, 50 and 81,
made, without landing, a flight of thir-
ty-six hours, covering 500 miles This
flight would have carried II from Ger
man soil to London, Paris, Vienna or
Stockholm. and back again. In secret
trials by the German government dur
ing March, a rapid-hring gun, capable
of throwing nearly sixty LS-inch shells
a minute, was fred with entire success
from the deck Of the Zeppelin !.
The Mcclure article afhTms that the
experimental stage has been passed SO
far as Germany is concerned, and says:
THE strength and stability of these
new ships are not a matter of theory or
belief; they are already demonstrated
facts. The Zeppelin 1, under her mill
tary crew, made nineteen ascensions
between March 9 and April 6. in the
mountainous country about Lake Con-
stance, which is 1900 feet above sea-
level. Three of these were made in
snowstorms; one of them, lasting seven
and half hours i'm blizzard. In an
other trial. the ship flew for hours,
landed, and anchored safely. i'm a ire
mendous forty-milo gale. The Zepperlin
II on May 81 crushed her whole bow in
while landing. spent a fun day, i'm d
heavy wind, floating on her collision
bulkheads, was temporarily repaired,
and then flew with her own motors fifty
miles TO her home port in perfect safe
". No ocean steamship could have
done more than this after an equally
serious accident All this time these
huge craft-the size of Atlantic liners
have been landing on the ground with
out special wharves. a captain at
tempting the similar feat Of landing a
great steamship upon a shore without
wharves would be considered insane"
The adaptabiHty of the airship for
war purposes being conceded. the awful
possibilities of a battle above the clouds
become apparent, 10 say nothing of the
humiliation of great armies and ma
vies and the destruction of cities by
means Of rain of projectiles from the
atrships Of the enemy. On this point it
is stated that nothing alive on the
ground can escape the fire of an airship
1t viii be armed with rapid-hre guns
carrying shells, but its chief reliance
in fighting infantry or cavalry viii be
upon the machine rifle. With this wea-
pan it can turn a stream OF 400 bullets
a minute on any troops within two
miles, exactly as man turns the
stream Of a garden hose against tree
Its gunners can see any object on the
ground with a perfect CIearness, impos-
sible Of realization by anyone who has
not flown i'm a balloon. They can thus
mark the striking Of bullets perfectly
And the range of their guns is nearly
doubled on account Of their position
The fire of an airship viii annihilate
infantry and cavalry beneath it. as
surely as the hand OF Cod It VIII nat
be directed long at any coherent body
which could be called troops. human
nature forbids the possibility OF men
remaining 10 be shot down like rats in
pit.
OF course. guns nave been constructed
for the especial purpose OF bringing
down the winged messengers OF desFue-
ton. but the. chances are. all in favor
Of the airship III a contest of thls kind
Perhaps. after all thare. was SOM. rea-
son in the reeeRts scare 81 England
and the Imaginary German airshipS
which were thought-to be sailing over
the tight. little isle may become a reality
some time in the future. II is certain
that great progress has been made in
the matter of aerial navigation. and that
the present methods of warfare viii be
revoluunnized- 1t may be that i'm the
end war viii be abolished by consent OF
all the nations IN the meantime it be-