THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



most four hundred feet in length, and thirty feet in 

 diameter — the proportions of a fair-sized ocean liner — 

 and like the hull of its ocean prototype, was divided 

 into compartments — seventeen in number, and gas- 

 tight. Its frame- work was of aluminum rods and wires, 

 and the skin of the envelope was made of silk, coated 

 with india-rubber. It was equipped with four alumi- 

 num screws, and two aluminum cars were placed be- 

 low the body at a considerable distance apart. The 

 motive power was supplied by benzine motors, selected 

 because of their lightness. 



The company for constructing this balloon was cap- 

 italized at about two hundred thousand dollars, the cost 

 of the shed alone, which rested on ninety-five pontoons 

 on the surface of the lake of Constance, near the town 

 of Manzell, being fifty thousand dollars. July 2nd, 1910, 

 the count and four assistants in the cars, started on the 

 maiden voyage. The balloon rose and made headway 

 at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, responding 

 readily to the rudder, but soon broke or deranged 

 some of the steering-gear so that it became unmanage- 

 able and descended at Immerstaad, a little over three 

 miles from the starting-point. Considering the amount 

 of thought, care, and money that had been expended 

 upon it, its performance could hardly be looked upon 

 as a startling success. By the advocates of the aero- 

 plane principle it was considered an utter failure. 



But while Count Zeppelin was experimenting with 

 his ponderous leviathan air-ship, a kindred spirit, the 

 young Brazilian, M. Santos-Dumont, was making ex- 

 periments along similar lines, but with balloons that were 



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