New Britain herald., 1917-03-09
GRIEF HASTENS End
Of COUNT | ZEPPELIN
Spirit Crushed By Failure d Air
ship As War Machine

8l3uI 1OI10Au AlISulpS WHICH u8NU
made London city Of darkensd
streets and silent nights. died yestsr-
day at Charlottenburg. near Berlin. Of
Inflammation Of the lungs, according
to Berlin despatch transmitted ~
the Ameterdam correspondent Of
Reuters Telegram company. The
report IL confirmed by smother dc.
spatch sent from Geneva throuSh
Paris, which. however. states that thu
Counts death was due to pneumonia
Failure Speeds Death.
The failure OF his airships 70
terror1ze England and bring the war
to q speedy end. and their apparent
abandonment by the German general
stan In the consideration Of militaxy
measures. is believed to have besn q
contributing factor in the death, OF
Count Won Zeppelin. For several
naonths. as Zeppelin raids against
England have become less and less
frequent the British aviatofs have
brought down more airships With
every attack, reports have hltared
through from Germany that Count
Won SZeppe1in's health was failing
through disappointment. Within the
last month, following the disastrous
raid over the midland. counties Of
England. In which two airships were
brought down in flames. the German
government has practically admitted
that the Zeppelin has been q failure,
and reports have come from Berth
bot s~fo vAA at
regarded as having military value.
Not more than three weeks ago q
well authenticated despatch from
Geneva said the Zeppelin works 1t
Frfedrichshafen were being dr.
many, SO far as the use Of the array
last Zeppelin.
Dispatches from Germany have
pictured Count Won Zeppelin rs
crushed with disappointment over the
action Of the Kaiser in sending his
invention to the scrapheap and with
hearing the dominating motive Of his
life branded as q failure. For forty
years Count Won Zeppelin labored.
driven BY the belief that he was dos
tined to build an engine Of destruc-
ton that would nullify the great
English battle fleet and lead the Ger
mans to mastery Of the world through
mastery of the air: 81 i
~ . ffs5oiEfft5 of Kaiser.
hose forty years Kavesssen him
elevated from the position Of = harmt Z
less Crank In the Strip OF q Vision 10
the top rank Of the roll Of German
heroes; they. have seen him petted BY
the kaiser, q court favorite, and char
acterized by the monarch as 1.-The |
greatest German" and they have seen |
him an old, old man standing help
lessly by while the military lords
branded his life work as failure.
Ferdinand Won Zeppelin was born
n 1888, the son of q small Wurttem-
,erg court official in Constance on
he shore Of the lake OF, that name,
where all Of his experiments were
later" carried out. He came OF q
lineage of fighting Mecklenburg
knights: the Junior branch OF his fam
lily had been residing In German ter
ritory for more than 500 years. When
a youth Zeppelin followed the only
calling open to man of his station
in life. He received military. train
ing and he entered the army Of his
sovereign prince as a lieutenant Of
cavalry at the age Of %.
i IN 1863 he was detached from the
Wurttemberg service as a military oh
server to follow the armies Of the
American Union In the civil war. He
came to this country. proceeded al
rectly to the Army Of the Mississippi \
and was attached to the brigade com
manded by Gen. Carl schurz. The
young man. so 1t was afterward re-
corded by Gen. Schurz, often allowed
his zeal for combat to overcome his
purely neutral position as q scientific
observer Of warfare and on many oc-
casions orderlies had to ride in where
the lighting was thickest to remind
the officer from Wurttemberg that his
place was in the rear. Once. at the
battle of Fredericksburg, only q sud
den dash on horseback saved Zeppe-
lin from being captured by the Con-
federates.
First Balloon Trip in q. s.
1t was while he was with the Union
armies that the young German on
GERS Unborn taste for aeronautics
first found opportunity. His nrst
ascent IN q balloon occurred when he
received permission to go up in the
basket Of an observation balloon that
reconnoitered the Confederate posi-
ton before a battle.
zeppelin returned to Germany in
1866 just in time to serve with the
German armies in the short aud SHARP
campaign against Austria, but it was
at. the outbreak Of the Ffanco-Prus-
sian war that the mad younsster from
Wurttemberg first distinguished him
self.
In 1887 ho abandoned military life
for brief period to represent his
principally In the federal council at
Berlin. hut In 1Aan ha Was hanle a.