The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1917-03-10
COUNT ZEPPELIN, "CONQUEROR
OF THE ARR DIES IN
GERMANY


lin is dead, according to dispatch
from Berlin received by Reuters Tele-
gram Company. According to tele-
gram transmitted to Reuters Amster-
dam correspondent, Count Zeppelin
died this afternoon at Charlottenburg,
near Berlin, from Inflammation of the
lungs, due to pneumonia.
Count Ferdinand Zeppelin became
famous at the age of 70 as the build
er of the worlds first practical diri-
gible balloon. On his 18th birthday he
navlgated his twentieth airship to
celebrate the occasion. But before he
had achieved fame he had devoted a
half century of his life, exhausted his
personal fortune of $75O,OOO and sacri-
feed brilliant career as a German
cavalry leader, in conquering the air.
"Greatest German"
Emperor William recently proclaim
ed Count Zeppelin to be "the greatest
German of the twentieth century" AS
a token Of appreciation he conferred
upon him the exalted Order of the
Black Eagle, the highest honor in the
Emperor's power.
1t was in the United States that
Count Zeppelin made his first balloon
ascension. 1t occurred while he was
following General Carl Shurz in the
Civil War as military observer for
the German army. A captive balloon
in use for military observations by
Union troops greatly interested the
young German officer, and he was
taken up in it in 1868.
Scion of a wealthy family of an
cient lineage, Count Zeppelin was
born in Constance, Baden, in 1888. AS
youth he was trained for soldiers
career. He fought through the Aus
tro-Prusslan and the Franco Prussian
wars, and is said to have been the
first German soldier to cross the
frontier into France in the last named
conflict. Serving in the German cav
airy for three decades, he rose to
rank of general at the age of AZ years.
He retired ten years later dis
tinguished soldier, to devote all his
time to the problem of aeronautics.
He began to study and experiment
soon after arriving in Germany from
the American Civil War. Except for
the time demanded in routine military
duties, for the time spent in fighting
two wars, and for year spent in
honeymooning with his bride, who was
a girl of the German nobility, he spent
the remainder of his life in building
flying contrivances that, for the most
part. refused to fly.
An AristOcratic Mechanic
From wealthy nobleman owning
vast estates, Count Zeppelin was grad
ually reduced to an aristocratic me-
chanic, living in humble cottage on
an allowance supplied by his friends.
He had many narrow escapes from
death, and disaster repeatedly over
took his airships. These became so
frequent that pert paragraphs began
to appear in the German press in
ridicule Of his efforts.
Then in day the tide turned. He
electrified skeptical world in 1908
by staying aloft for thirty-seven hours
in the fifth airship he had built, and
by sailing 1t in a straight course for
distance of nearly 900 miles. Emperor
William. and all Germany In fact, hail
eb MIN as the conqueror Of the air."
The monster ballon, 1855 feet long
and Of the rigid type and resembling
huge cigar, soon met with disaster as
had Its predecessors. Each wreck was
= arcat financial loss, for Zeppelin's
balloons were valued as high as $780,
$50 each. These disasters. however,
also proved the affection In which the
German people held the aristocratic
aviator. When one of his airships
was torn from Its moorings by q gale
and wrecked, the public subscribed
sl.O00,000 to fund OF which the