Weekly journal-miner., 1915-01-13
.DREADNAUGHTS OF AIR
 A MENACE ID ENGLAND
Monster ZeppelinS Reported to be Pre- pairing to Cross North Sea And
 Invade Tight Little Isle

CT and possibilities of the Zeppelin. The potentialities and limitations of the enormous field gun, the mono plane and the submarine have been fairly well determined. But as to what may or may not be accomplish ed by a great fleet of armed and armored air cruisers the mystery re- mains as great as ever.
 Any hour may break the spell now and may bring news of an oversea raid of war Zeppelins that will open a new epoch in the present struggle so it is to Germany that tine world looks for the answer to the question of the value of this new type of war craft. Germany alone has under taken their construction on an eX- tensive scale. According to recent reports she has a fleet of forty-flve of them assembled near the coast, within striking distance of England, and is completing a new one every three weeks. It is the unknown pos abilities contained in this new type of war machine that is keeping Lon doners awake nights-for inland cit ies are as much exposed to Zeppelin attacks as are seacoast towns. A practical test of these dreaduaughts of the air is awaited with keen inter est by the military authorities of the United States for it may deter mine whether or not this country should adopt the new weapon.
 While everybody has read more or less of the experiments of Count Zeppelin in the development of what used to be called the dirigiblc bal loon but what is now more generally known by the name of the count him. self, few persons realize the tremen- dous development in size and range which these airships have undergone in the past few years. The war Zcp- pelins will carry sufficient fuel to give them Sn effective radius of thir- ty-six hours or over 2,000 milcs-and super-Zeppelins to exceed this record are now being constructed. Should they accomplish what their adherents expect of them and should this new bombardment from the sky prove ef- fective the airship may superscde the warship, and the most improved forts may be rendered as obsolete as the battering ram and catapault be- came after the discovery of gun powder.
 The passenger carrying Zeppelins are easily converted into war craft. At the outbreak of the war there were thirty passenger airships in reg ular service in Germany, and these were at once taken over by the gov crnment equipped with guns and am munition and placed on a war basis. It is not generally realized that a number of regular passenger services in various parts of Germany were carried out on regular schedule be- fore the war, and that the airships ran with the regularity and freedom from accident of railroad trains
 The Zeppelins constructed primari- lv for use in war differ from the regular commercial airship in speed and in the arrangement of their bridges and gun platforms. The pas sengers making an air trip are con tent to float along at rate of 30 miles an hour and enjoy the sensa- ton and the scenery. Speed is so important a factor in war, however, that everything else is sacrificed for it. The war Zcppelins have dcvcl- opcd a speed of sixty miles an hour and even more, and in a still air can be counted on to average forty miles or better. These crafts are driven by six-cylinder Diesel motors devel- oping combined horsepower of ov- CT 500. Even in the event of acci- Gcnt to two of the airship's motors the third motor would enable it to gain headway against d thirty mile wind. In passing over hostile city the Zeppelin would probably go far out of its course if necessary in or der 10 go with the wind and gain the greatest possible speed.
 The gas bags of these crafts meas urc about 500 feet in length and fifty feet in diameter Beneath the gas envelope are suspended two cars, one we'll forward, the other at the stern The forward car serves as the bridge of the airship and the car at the stern carries the engines. The cabins which are enclosed, are amidship. A covered passageway connects the three cabins. The war Zcppclin' carry crews varying from seventeen 10 twenty-five men. and there is am pie room for sleeping accommoda tions, a kitchen, tanks for storing