The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-05
Worlds Greatest Dirigible
 Rivals Ocean Liner In Size

New York, July 5-The R-34 and her sister ship the R-33, are the worlds greatest dirigibles. The war brought them into being for they or Einally were designed to outZeppelin Germany's Zeppelins and bring death and destruction to German cities When they were building it was re-
 ported that they would be the flag
 ships of a gigantic fleet of aircraft that would be launched on a tremen- dous air raid on Berlin. For this
 purpose they were equipped with openings through which -our 800- pound bombs and 16 of 12O pounds could be dropped, while on the up per structure emplacements were built for batteries of eight guns.
 The sudden end of the world war put a, stop to the plans for a raid on
 Berlin and the architects of the dir igib1e turned their attention to re- modelling their craft for peaceful pur- poses. But their plans were again interrupted in June when the war clouds gathered again as reports gained strength that Germany would refuse to accept the allied peace terms. The R-3f was swiftly put on a war basis and started on a cruise of 2.000 miles over the Baltic and the German coast region. She carried no bombs but, equipped with rapid-firing g guns, swept the enemy's territory at Ia low altitude, her enormous shadow giving a grim promise of the possibil- ities of the future.
 The cruise was made without a mis-
 hap, and when peace finally was as sured the crew of the R-34 resumed their preparations for the historic flight to America. Originally it was planned that the voyage should be made by the R-33 also but it was de- cided that too much time would be needed to remodel the sister ship.
 The R-34's birthplace was Inchin-
 nan, a little village near Glasgow. In
 size she rivals all but the very largest
 ocean liners. Her length is GAO feet,
 her beam 79 feet and from the bot
 tof of her lowest gondola to the top
 of the gas bag, she measures 79 feet. Her measurements are very nearly those of the liner Adriatic and if she were stood on end she would overtop the famous Singer building by 27 feet. Two million cubic feet of hy- drogen gas are imprisoned in the
 enormous balloon, whose resem blance to Q monstrous fish is heightened by the fact that it is painted a silver color, proved by experiment to be the most successful for resisting the ac- tiOn of the sun in expanding the gas | bag.
 The driving power of the airship is supplied by five Sunbeam motors with a total of 1000 horse power, sufficient to give a speed of close to 70 miles an hour in favorable weather To feed these motors the airship between f,500 and ,OO0 gallons of gasoline weighing 1 tons and giving her a i cruising ardius of 4,9OO nautical miles | or considerably more than the dis tance between Europe and America and return. Her lifting capaciay is 5G tons, of which 21.12 tons is discharge able weight, or weight which can be | disposed of from the ship.
 ] Five gondolas are swung from the gas bag controlled from six platforms | In these cars are comfortable accom- modatfons for the crew of 30 with i sleeping quarters for half that num- Der Radiators on top motors supply i them with hot water, and electric stoves assure them of hot meals | Communications with mother earth is