Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-05
BIG BL|MP COMES
NEXT SPRING TO
HOME IN AMERICA
Rare Metal and Skins Used
by British in Construc-
ton of R-38.
BY EDWARD PRICE BELL.
BY Cable to The Star md Chicago
Daily News. Copyright, 1920.

Daily news. Copyright, 1870.
LONDON. England. June .. 1t
looks like a gigantic spider web. This
was ones initial reaction. gazing up
at the skeleton of the RIBS, Ameri-
cas- superdreadnaught now well ad-
vanced toward completion at a model
factory fifty miles northwest of Lon
don.
Yes replied an engineer. her frame
looks almost as delicate as spider
web, but it has the strength of steel.
! myself must go up in her on her
trial flights, which will probably be
to Germany or the Mediterranean.
and / am especially interested =
making her strong"
The permit to inspect the RIBS was
due to the courtesy of the authori-
ties of the air ministry. who control
her until she is accepted by the
American Navy. She stands now
without her envelope or gas bags a
mighty frame work of light, hollow.
triangular or square Orders. with
mazes of stay wires 700 feet long and
built in sections As feet in length.
and all the sections but one are An
ished
Her bow and stern are yet incom-
plete. her huge fns-two rudders and
two elevators-await adjustment and
her control car and engines have not
been installed. All these are coming
on rapidly. and il America had a
shed for the ship she would prob
ably sail this fall. AS 1t is she prob
ably will not sail before next spring
She VIII have six sunbeam cossack
engines Of $50 horsepower each. or a
total horsepower Of 2,l00. Her cruis-
ing speed will be As miles an hour.
with maximum range of $40 miles
Her normal full speed will be 81
miles an hour. with maximum range
Of $3.50 miles and a maximum en-
durance of IS hours. At cruising
speed her maximum time endurance
will be 211 hours. In an emergency
she can travel at the rate Of II miles
an hour.
Goldbeaters' Skins Line Bags.
Her frame is made of duralumin
which Is aluminium with an alloy of cop
per. giving the strength of mild steel
with one-third Of its weight and twenty
times it's cost Her gas bags are made
of cotton of a special kind lined with
goldbeaters skin. which Is taken from
the lower colon Of cattle and is the only
known material that will contain hydro
gen for any considerable time. There
are substitutes for this skin that work
even better than it for while. but they
that will hold penetrating gas for. say.
two years, are constantly sought. for
goldbeaters' skin Is scarce compared
with the demand. No less than 100000
cattle had to be slaughtered to supply the
skins necessary to line the gas bage of
the R-38 alone. Girls in khaki overals
could be seen washing these skins and
sticking them on the inner surfaces of
the gas bags. of which there are fifteen.
The envelope Of the huge balloon is
made Of the finest Egyptian cotton i'm
pregnated with a chemical to resist wa
ter. 1t will be stretched over the frame.
which is a polygon of twenty-five sides.
or practically a circle. The envelope
will be painted pure silver of alumni
mum color. SO that it will glow in the
treatment is not for appearance. but for
rejecting the suns rays to keep the
hydrogen comparatively cool. for other
wise 1t expands in the day time and the
gas Is lost. while at night it contracts
and the lifting power is diminished.
disastrous attack on England and
France. losing several ships. they came
to grief because of freezing water IN
their radiators at $4,000 to $4,000 feet
up. incidentally. at this height the
crews became SO sick and de-energized
that they could attempt no repairs. The
radiators became fatally cold becaue they
were fixed in position to get as much
air as possible in lower and warmer alti-
tudes. The R-3S is fortified against
of the Germans. Its radiators are NOV
able They can be lifted for the warmer
attitudes and lowered for the colder.
thus being immune from either over
heating or freezing.
British airship designers and builders
owe much to the late Count Zeppelin,
but they have advanced far beyond his
greatest achievement. They had built
four airships prior to seeing Zeppelin
and even when Zeppelins were brought
down in England each was SO shattered
by the bursting of ten tons Of ex-
plosives that the relics yielded only inn
perfect information and at the cost Of
the most patient labor.
Three hundred skilled men are work.
ing on the R-3S. II she were wanted
quickly 1000 would be employed and
she would be finished in few weeks.
She will cost f400.000 (normally
81, O00. 000) to build. or almost the price
fact that the engineers of chief RESPONSE
biAty in the Royal Airship works got
their experience in constructing sub
marines. for the problem OF making a
ship behave properly in the air is close
ly akin to making a boat behave prop
erly under water.
Americans Training for Trip.
Nine officers and eighteen men Of the
American Navy are in training at How
den, Yorkshire, with the R-34. prepar-
ing themselves to take the RIBS to the
United States next spring. 1t is re-
ported that they are making fine
progress.
The RIBS will be equipped with the
latest instruments for detecting the ap-
proach Of storms. Electrical storms are
a peculiar terror to the navigators Of
airships and maximum speeds are used
to escape them. They are met with
Off the coast of Nova
Scotia. which the R-3S may be expected
to avoid.
Though this ship is the largest of its
kind at present. its capacity is only
1850. 900 cubic feet Of gas and the de-
signers at the Royal Airship works are
dreaming of ships of 100000 and
5. 100000 cubic feet. They hold that
the future in the air belongs to vessels
Of colossal size with their relatively
larger carrying power. The RIBS.
with her cargo. easily could accommo-
date a couple Of dozen persons besides
her crew. Airships are in contempla-
ton that will be veritable liners Of the
upper blue"
81 earnestly hope that the airships
may help to broaden the bridge between
America and England said the
engineer as we departed from the works.