Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-01-15

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It may be a puzzle to Americans
why. in the face of disasters and acci-
dents to these Zeppelins. Germany is
spending about "a, 1000, 900 on her aerial
feet. Now we COM to a cry signif-
cant point. know, and certain mem
bers OF the German general STAFF know
as well as trusted men in the aerial
corps, that there r two conditions
under which airships III operated in
Germany. One is the ordinary more
or less well-known system which char
~acterizes the operation Of all the pas
senger lines now In service In the en-
pire. It is the system under which
all the disasters that appear in the
newspapers occur. Airships that are
used In the general army flights and
aneuv are also run under the
same system as the passenger dirig-
ibles-for a reason.
The other system is an absolute Sc
cret OF the German general staff. 1t
is not used In the general m~aneuvers,
only in specific cases, and these al
ways secretly. 1t has been proved to
be effective In eliminating rs per cent
of the accidents which have character.
lied all Of Germany's adventures in
dirigibles and heavier-than-air ma
chimes. These statistics are known
only among the German general staff
officers.
Critics of the German dirigible who
rate the French aeroplane superior
point out that the zeppelins have
three serious defects-bulk and heavi-
ness of structure, infammability of the
lifting power-the gas that floats them
and insuficiency Of fuel carriage. In
other words, they cannot ship enough
gas to stay In air a desirable length of
time without coming down. The Sc
cret devices of the German war Office
have eliminated all these Objectionable
features. They have overcome the
condition of bulk and heaviness of
structure by their government chem
lists devising the formula of a material
that is lighter than aluminium, yet
which possesses all of that metals
density and which has also the f1ex-
ibility of steel. Airships not among
the twelve that Germany officially ad-
mits are made of this material. Its
formula Is a government secret and
England or France would give thou
sands of dollars to possess 1t.
The objection OF iniammability of
the lifting power has also been over
come. The power of the ordinary n.y.
drogen gas in all It's various forms has
been multiplied threefold by a new
gas discovered at the Spandau govern
ment chemical laboratory. This gas
has also the enormous advantage of
being absolutely uninfiammable. !
have seen experiments made with 1t.
1t cannot be used for Illuminating pur-
poses. Dirigibles that are equipped
with 1t are not liable to the awful ex-
plosions that have characterized
flights under the ordinary system.
The new gas has also the enormous
advantage OF having a liquid form. To
produce the gas 1t Is only necessary to
let the ordinary atmosphere come in
contact with the liquid. Carried in
cylinders two feet long and with a
diameter Of six inches, 1t is obvious
that enough of this liquid can be car
ried aboard the big war dirigibles to
permit their reflling in mid-air. So,
you see, all the objections to the COM
monty known system of operation
have been overcome by the war Office.
The last dirigible tried by the war
office in 1912, the mysterious Zeppelin
x, made a continuous trip from Stet-
tin over the Baltic to Upsala in Swe-
den, thence across the Baltic again to
Riga In the Gulf of Finland, where 1t
doubled and sailed back to Stettin.
This was a journey of 976 miles. The
airship had a complement Of twenty
five men and twelve tons Of dead
weight. 1t travelled under severe
weather conditions, the month being
March, and snow storms, hail and rain
occurred throughout the voyage.
The significance of this flight can
be easily understood IL you consider
that the distance from Strassburg or
Dusseldorf to Paris or other s~trategical
points in France is approximately 4S0
kilometers. A ship like the Zeppelin
x could sail over the French border,
dynamite the Notifications around
Paris and return. the journey being
roughly about 1000 kilometers OF
some hundreds of kilometers less than
the actual trip made by the Zeppelin
x. Moreover, the German military
trials have shown the possibility OF an
aerial feet leaving its home ports and
cruising to foreign lands and return
ing without the necessity Of landing to
r%eplenish its gas tanks or fuel.
The Aerial Corps.
Let me show you how the German
aerial corps is made up. 1t is called
the Luftschiffer Abteilung and Is COM
posed Of ten ba%ttalions, each consist
ing Of $50 men. They are all absolute
ly trained for this branch Of the serv-
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