New Britain herald., 1916-08-22
11-y

behind. Then the wondrous monster was led out of the hall with an ease which the eye could hardly credit.
 Gas cells between the ribs of the air cruiser cheat the laws of gravita- tion. The ship is weighed to an ounce, no lighter and no heavier than air, so that it swings in space like a great feather. A band of frolicl1- ing schoolboys could just as well have led the monster out of it's stall
 But outside waited the nightwind. One knew it we'll from past experience Therefore a hundred hard seamen's fists grabbed it outside to prevent cap- sizing.
 The Air Giant is Off.
 "A shrill whistle and all the screws began their storm song. A few men of the landing battalion shook them selves like wet dogs. They had got on their heads a spout of the water with which the air aar lightens itself. Lightly the slender colossus doated upward and it seemed swal- lowed up by the night, a dark shadow against the Great Dipper
 Tn the commanders gondola, among all the measuring instruments and signal wires hangs a small brown plush teddy bear, and amid the storm song of the propellers and the thunder of the motors you seem to hear the shrill laughter of children. TtH com- mander's small daughter sent him the teddy bear as a souvenir when sailing over England.
 We flew. The deafening noise making conversation impossible, I at first noticed nothing. The comman- dant showed me the manipulation of the steering gear for elevation and di- rection and all the other technical equipment and the little bear grinned as one who knew it all long ago.
 We flew over wood and meadow, and over airship halls and barracks and the canopy of green was soon lost to sight.
 '"Through small horizontal trans parent pane, built like an alcove in the glass wall of the commandant's gondoIa, your eyes can see straight downward into the depths below
 At 2,0O0 feet the earth assumed that delightful relief that makes it seem like a giant plaything. In the distance the gray aura of city ap- peared, but was soon left behind.
 Views North Sea Fleet.
 "How the heart beat when through the forward windows of the gondola the North Sea was sighted. There lav the battle fleet, but the ships seemed to hang in clouds, an optical illusion, for when seen from an airship the earth seems to sink like a round. flat saucer. Immediately under you lies the lowest point, while round about the horizon seems to rise. Hence came the illusion that battle cruisers and a dreadnought, steaming far out at sea, were gliding through low clouds.
 'The barometer showed $500 feet. Now we are in the zone of explosion danger the commandant said coolly and quietly. I cannot deny that this information disturbed the enjoyment of my view over all the world.
 "The captain explained further: At this height the atmosphere is most in clined to creep through the thin skin of the gas cells, producing that ex- plosive mixture of hydrogen and oXy- gen which you know from chemistry. If a man with hob-nailed boots were to strike a spark on the steel plates now he could blow us all into the air. That is why we now blow off gas. This prevents 8 dangerous proportion in the mixture of air and hydrogen.
 "Shrill bells sounded through the | airship commands were called through the telephone, and wires were ! pulled. AS we flew back over the l land again the commander pointed out 1 to me a largo white cross in the midst 1 of a plain. It was target. Four 1 bombs fell. Not one of them fell out