The Washington times., 1917-03-09
attention to the problem of aerial

attention to the problem of aerial
navigation.
The first Zeppelin airship was COM
pleted in 1900, and the trial trip
seemed to be satisfactory, but on the
second trial there was an accident,
and in other subsequent attempts to
navigate the initial ship behaved so
badly that its uselessness in any kind
of wind was demonstrated.
Its inventor was heart-broken. He
broke up this first ship of his and
stored away its material for use In
possible future experiments, but his
money was again all gone.
Just at the darkest hour help came
from unexpected sources. The loyal
friends OF the inventor solicited aid
from several wealthy men OF Ger
many and enough money came in to
warrant a resumption OF the costly
experiments. The succeeding years
down to 1906 seemed filied with the
same old succession of high hopes and
crushing failures. 1t was not until
June of 1905 that the count completed
an entirely new airship which gave
promise of doing real things.
Success at Last.
This craft was 443 feet in length
and of about forty-five feet diameter,
and it had a lifting capacity of six
teen tons. Aluminium was the mate
rial with which the skeleton of the
great cigar-shaped bag was made.
The new motor was capable of de-
veloping 40 horsepower. On the
first flight of the new contrivance the
count remained in the air about two
hours with his giant machine under
he Fra
time. He carried twelve persons with
him in two depending cars fore and
aft. Success had come.
In June, 1905, he stayed up six and
three-Quarter hours, and in the fol-
lowing August he attempted a trip
from Constance to Frankfort, but
here again sudden disaster over
whelmed him. His balloon took fire
in a thunderstorm near Stuttgart and
was completely destroyed.
1t was in May, 1909, that Zeppelin
won his final triumph with q new
ship. He flew for 300 miles.
The Victoria Luise was the first
Zeppelin ever to fly over the sea,
when on June 81, 1912, it took twelve
passengers from Hamburg over Hell
goland and Norderney and back to
Wilhelmshaven, the great German ma
val base.
Count Zeppelin made of the Zeppe-
lin III the first of those military
cruisers OF the air which were to
drop bombs on London when the
great war brought to the old count
der tag"
Another Zeppelin, the Hansa, Wis
tied Copenhagen Unexpectedly and
hovered over the British warships of
the first cruiser squadron while many
visitors were aboard. That was al
most exactly two years before the
beginning. of the war.
Failure As Offensive Weapon.
During the war Zeppelin airships
have been used for scouting purposes
as well as for air raids against Paris
and London. The Zeppelin has also
been used in connection with naval
sorties in the North Sea. French anti
aircraft defenses soon put an end to
raids on Paris. Zeppelin attacks on
London and other parts OF England
continued until the severe losses suf-
fered by the air fleets seemed to
have decided the German staff that
the material damage inflicted was not
worth the cost in life and money in
CURED by Germany in these attacks.
Several Zeppelins fell in flames on
British soil, while others came to
grief in the Thames estuary and in
the North Sea
AS an offensive weapon, the allies
call the Zeppelin a failure, but for
scouting purposes they agree with
Germany in recognizing its value on
land and sea.