New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-01-31

founded the industry of building dirigibles for
commercial and war use Zeppelin is the man.
Not even the Krupp family has been more inn
portant to the fatherland.
Yet pertinacity doesn't mean dulness here
In Zeppens career there has been more than
one dash of that sort of romance which nor
maly belongs TO the melodrama hero rather
than to the prosaic engineer and Flooding
mechanic. In time OF war he has risked his
life with the very same fire and happy-go-
lucky rskishress that helped him to spend for
his dirigibles his share OF nearly hundred
million dollars of the German governments
good money No one but an apparently hare
Drained individual would have taken his part in
the ballooning of the Civil War After Pro-
fessor T. S. {. Lowe had placed himself and
his balloon at the disposition of President Lin
coin and had sent from his aircraft the first
telegram from sky to earth, balloons were
sagely recognized as having possible war
value. After the defeat at Manassas one OF
the first who pressed for service in the danger
Gus business OF signalling artillery fire dircc-
tons from a balloon was young Zeppelin.
Trained as an engineer at the Polytechnic of
Stuttgart, he pleaded special knowledge, and
service in the balloon corps from that time on
was his
When the Franco Prussian War broke out
young Zeppelin had no balloon for observation
purposes, but with few cavalrymen he made
an advanc. dash into French territory that has
come do gn through history
RETIREMENT FROM ACTIVE MILL
TARY LIFE.
He continued in the cavalry for some time
after the var, but in 1891 he retired as gen
eral from active military life, returning to his
birthplace and home by the SIDE OF Lake Con-
stance But he had no idea OF settling down;
it was time now to start to work. By 1892 ne
was devoting himself heart and soul to the
science of flying.
1t was not until 1900 that the first Zeppelin
was launched The money for the construc-
ton of this first Zeppelin machine was supplied
by the Balloon Company, organized with
capital of S2Oc 900, one-haf OF which was raised
by Zeppelin himself out of his own personal
funds This sum Of 100000, incidentally, is
lust about the cost of single dirigible to-day.
But this amount could nowhere nearly cover
the cost Of the great shed which had to be built
and finished before the dirigbe itself could be
started.
The count began building his first great shed
in 1898; but instead of putting it up on land he
hoated it on Lake Constance, off the village OF
Manuel To-day the Friedrichshafen Zeppelin
factory is near this very spot. This original
shed was a wooden structure, ouriously pointed,
floating on nearly one hundred separate pom
toons. The whole affair was $50 feet long, 70
feet broad and 66 feet high; scarcely toy.
IN THE EARLY DAYS OF ZEPPELIN
BUILDING.
The first dirigibe built by Zeppelin was con-
structed under the direction OF Herr Kaubler,
aided by seventy carpenters and thirty me-
chanics. Every piece of material was tested
twice and sometimes oftener before 1t was per-
mitted to enter into the construction. A Yep
pen may be built to-day easily enough within
the space OF single month-this has been
brought about through the standardizing OF
factory arrangements-and at least two may
be built at the same time IN even the smaller
factories of Germany In tn: older days how
ever, it was very different
1t is not too much to say that all the re-
sources of the manufacturing Germany OF that
day were drawn upon by Zeppelin to assemble
the varied materials and pieces which went into
the making of this airship. While the manu-
facture of arshps is now recognized. psrticu-
larly in Germany, as regular and legitimate
industry, in those days Zeppelin had to make
the most careful search for every material he
needed In one instance, when Zeppelin found