The Irish standard., 1916-02-26
All About Zeppelins
BY c. G. Grey,
Editor of "The Acceptance"


Editor of "The Aeroplane."
The general shape of Zeppelin is
tubular, with rounded ends-some-
thing like the pointed end of an egg
the nose or forward end being slightly
blunter than the tail. This apparent
tube has in reality 16 sides, simply
because it is an easier engineering Job
to build it that way than in a perfect
circular section.
What one sees of a Zeppelin from
the outside-that is to say, the visible
wallis not gas bag at all, but the
cloth or fabric covering of the frame
work, for the Zeppelin, like a lobster,
carries her skeleton outside. This
skeleton consists of 16 Orders made of
very thin aluminium alloy running from
end to end of the ship, parallel for
most of their length, and turning in
wards to meet one apother at nose
and tail-hence the 16 sides.
To keep these longitudinal Orders,
or "stringers," in position, there are
other thwart-ship Orders which run
like hoops round the ship, and act
just like the ribs of a boat In geo.
metric language they would be de-
scribed as 16-sided polygons, and each
OF them forms a connecting girder
from one "stringer" to the next.
There are generally about 18 of these
hoop-girders, spaced an equal distance
away from one another; and they are
braced across and across, inside each
hoop and from one hoop to the next
by wire bracing, so that they cut up
the whole skeleton into series of
compartments, each of which, except
the end compartments, has fiat ends
and 16 sides.
The Gasbags.
Into each of these compartments is
fitted gasbag, which is therefore
roughly the shape of cheese standing
on edge. This is the essential feature
of all Zeppelin type airships. The
central idea is that if one gasbag
springs leak, or is punctured by a
projectile, only that one bag collapses,
and the weighing of the ship is so
arranged that even if four or five gas
bags are entirely Debated, the re.
mainder are enough to float the ship
when all ballast, ammunition, and
other non-essentials have been thrown
overheard. In other types of airships,
if the gasbag is punctured the whole
ship collapses, sooner or later, accord
ing to the size of the hole.
Now, bearing in mind that the vari-
GUS gasbags of Zeppelin have to fit
inside the Orders and their bracing,
it is evident that the said Orders must
stick out some distance beyond the
bags. The whole thing is covered out
side with heavy weather-proof fabric,
partly to reduce the drag, or head
resistance, that all these Orders would
cause, partly to protect the more deli
cate rubbered fabric of the gasbags
from damage by light, changes of tenn
perature and weather generally. This
outside covering is treated with dope"
or varnish, which makes it impervious
to water, light, oil or petrol, and prac-
tically fireproof. That is say, the fab
ric will "frizzle" if flame is held to
it, but will not continue to burn when
the flame is removed.
Across the inner sides of the Orders
and the lateral partitions is a network
of fine ramie fibre, which holds the
cheese shaped gasbags in position, and
takes the life of the gas. Thus, one
sees that there is a clear air space
between the outer covering and the
network. This is a further safeguard
against fire, for if an incendiary bull
let, or bomb, or rocket hits the outer
casing and burns hole in it, the flame
cannot reach the gasbags and set fire
to the gas unless it is very big flame.
Zeppelin Features.
Also this space of stagnant air tends
to keep the temperature of the gasbags
even, for change of few degrees in
such huge volume Of gas would mean
great contraction or expansion, which
would cause the ship to fall or rise
and so would increase the
difficulty of handling her.
Briefly, the ideas of the divided con-
of the Zeppelins is to obtain |
'igidity in the framework, to localize