THE ZEPPELIN AIR SHIP. 



By Thomas E, Curtis. 



(Photos, by Alfred Wolf, C'onstanz. These are the only photographs authorized by 



Count Zeppeliu. ) 



With all these experiments going- on we ought soon to })e able to 

 travel through the air. The celebrated living machine invented ])v 

 Professor Langley a few years ago proved that flying machines could 

 fly: and the more recent experiments ])y Schwarz and Danilewsky have 

 increased the belief that the era of aerial flight was near. The latest 

 experiment, made only a month or two ago, by Count Zeppelin, on 

 Lake Constance, with one of the most ingenious, expensive, and care- 

 fully constructed balloons of modern times, was so successful in prov- 

 ing the rigidity and safety of an air ship at a high altitude that the 

 complete submission of the air to the mechanism of man seems nearer 

 than ever at hand. The interest of the whole scientific world in the 

 experiment was deep, and an unwonted exhibition of interest by the 

 ordinary public took place. 



The balloon was constructed in a wooden shed on Lake Constance, 

 at a little town called Manzell, near Friedrichshafen, and this curious 

 pointed structure, with twenty-two big windows (eleven on each side) 

 and its almost innumerable pontoons (on which the huge building- 

 floated), has for many months been an object of great attraction to 

 those visiting the ])eautiful Swiss lake. 



The illustration with which we open this article, while it does not 

 show the pointed end, so constructed to diminish the resistance of the 

 air, gives an admirable idea of the balloon-house. Four hundred and 

 flfty feet long, 78 broad, and 60 high, it is indeed a formidable object. 

 The rear end, through which we are able to see part of the air ship, 

 is usually covered with a curtain, to ward oft' the curious; and the front 

 end is given up to oflices, storerooms, and sleeping acconmiodation for 

 such workmen as have to act as sentinels at night. 



There can be little doubt that this construction shed is one of the 

 most perfect of its kind ever devised, and, incidentally, it shows the 

 care and skill with which Count Zeppelin and his engineers prepared 



1 Reprinted by permission from the Strand Magazine, September, 1900. 



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