The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-17
GERMANY HAS
 AN AERIAL NAVY Fourteen Air War Vessels Are
 Already Built NINE MORE BUILDING Will Be Important Factor In Settling International Questions in Europe. Important Discoveries In
 Asia Minor

ropean if not world supremacy
 From the time Count Zeppelin demon strated the fact that he was not a vision ary dreamer but had solved the problem of aerial navigation the German war office had never wavered in it's faith that the dirigible airship would be a great if not controlling factor in the next war in which the fatherland should engage, and as a result the Kaiser has at his dis posal a fleet of IA aerial warships rang ing from 140 to 453 feet in length and with speed ranging from 21 to STA miles an hour. There are nine more building, one nearly 300 feet long and another hav- Ing an estimated speed of 50 miles an hour.
 Ten or a dozen factories or dock yards" where airships are manufactured on systematic lines are at work. Twelve or fifteen permanent garages-several of them elaborately equipped ''stations"- dot the frontiers in the proximity of the sea and at inland centers. A special battalion of nearly 1000 officers, engineers and men, trained in all the exigencies of aerial navigation, is ready to take the air. Germany's great ordnance makers, the Krupps and Ehrhardts, are perfect ing airship- artillery and ex- perimenting with guns and explosives for offensive operations from height Air ship maneuvers have become a regular feature of the army's work.
 The army's scheme of aerial defense' contemplates a chain of permanent sta- tions which will eventually extend in a sweeping semi-circle through the north ana east. The idea Is that Germany shall be fortified in the air along her entire French and Russian frontiers and in the area fianking the sea. Every fortress within this area Is to be provided with one or more vessels. At present military airship stations are standing at Metz, Cologne, Frankfort, Berlin, Friedrichs- hafen. Gas-generating plants are at tached to the military airship stations, which are to be duplicated gradually at all strategic points as the fleet grows.
 While working hard on the offensive programme the defensive has not been neglected.
 The Krupps have perfected three air ship destroyers, one stationary field piece with an extreme range in height of 6730 yards. another for mounting on an ar mored motor car with an extreme range of 6S90 yards, and a naval piece which will hurl a 40-pound projectile to the enormous height of 12600 yards.
 For all the Krupp guns time-fuse is used. It is claimed that the fuse Is per- fectly safe to handle, yet so delicately adjusted that it will detonate the shell immediately on piercing the hull of an airship or balloon. The Krupp airship- destroying guns are also provided with tracers whereby the trajectory can be followed by day or night Germany Is universally enthusiastic over 1t future in the afr" Aerial navy leagues already number hundreds of thousands of members. Several univer- sities and technical collegee have estab- lished aeronautical professorships. The Kaiser is encouraging the officers of his army and navy to interest themselves more and more in aerial navigation. The richly endowed Motor Airship Study So- citey," composed of millionaire captains of industry, is ready with unlimited funds to support any aerial enterprise, airship or aeroplane, which promises to increase the fatherlands prowesss in the clouds. Both the society and the army are build ing aeroplanes of their own and of for egn systems, the German Wright com pany having perfected facilities for turn ing out five biplanes month at their works in Tegel Ten machines are all ready in commission and at the army's s disposal.
 The Vossische Zeitung publishes an in teresting description of fresh results at tained by the excavators of the Berlin Archaeological society on the site of Pergamon, in Asia Minor, the seat of the Attalid dynasty in the third and second centuries B. c.
 The work described was carried out in the late autumn of 1909. Upon an arti- fcial terrace of the city hill. which as isolated inscriptions prove, was known as H. {. the remains of great sanctuary and temple of the goddess.
 Dr. Hepding says that with the sane tuary, in addition to the altar of the god dess were altars of Aesklepios, Hermes Helios. Zeus, Ktesios, Pentheios and oth- CTS. Of special interest is an imper- fectly preserved inscription on a marble altar which, according to Dr. Hepding's deciphering, was dedicated to the ''un- known gods.
 If this interpretation is right it is the first confirmation ever found for the fla nous passage in the Areopagus speech of St. Paul-"F'or as I passed by and be- held your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO the Unknown God"
 I noted last week the fact that Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Prussia had en- tered an Italian monastery.
 He comes of a family noted for it's TO- mances. His brother, Prince Joachim, was dismissed from the German army by the Emperor because of his affection for Marie Suzer, an actress, who previ- ously had been married in London to the Austrian Baron von Liebenberg.
 Another brother. Prince Frederick Will helm, was sent to Konigsberg to study and, instead. fell in love with the beauti- fu and fascinating Countess Prula Lehn- dorff, the 19-year-old daughter of the fla nous adjutant general to the old Elm peror William. The Kaiser objected to the match and communicated his objec- tior to the countess mother. with the re- suit that the royal student was forbidden the house and. on his declaring that he would marry the object of his choice in spite of the Emperor himself, he was ex- lied from the country.
 Prince Friedrich Heinrich also came in for the Kaiser's displeasure Finding that his inclinations were entirely op- posed to the attitude insisted on by his illustrous rank, he threw over tho pomp and circumstance of the court and, under the name of Herr von Rogen. went to live as private gentleman. This reac- tionary decision reached the ears of the Kaiser, who ordered the prince to return