374 



Popular Science Monthly 



(yj Kadel & Herbert 



Interior of the commander's cabin, L-49. This was the 

 directing head, and navigating center of the big craft 



aibility. It is this air pressure which is 

 relied upon to control the craft when the 

 gas 'expands at great height and is dis- 

 sipated, or when it shrinks in volume in a 

 cold layer of 

 the atmo- 

 sphere, or 

 when tons of 

 weight are 

 added by 

 dew, rain, 

 snow or sleet. 

 Moreover, 

 descending 

 or ascending 

 currents of 

 air force the 

 ship up or 

 down, and 

 these cur- 

 rents must 

 be counter- 

 acted by fly- 

 ing the ship 

 airplane- 

 style. 



All this means that much is expected 

 of the engines. The ship must be driven 

 through the air at high speed if the 

 most is to be made of the airplane 

 effect. Since so much depends on mere 

 motive power, the L-49 had been reduced 

 to a huge cylinder of gas, a few cars for 

 the crew, an enormous load of bombs, 

 and the most powerful engines that air 

 can support. 



Wireless Signals from Germany Guide 

 the Zeppelins 



The passenger-carrying Zeppelins that 

 plied over the Rhine before the war, had 

 luxurious cabins. Fully three times as 

 bulky as these ante-bellum vessels, the 

 L-49 was nevertheless as bare of comforts 

 as a racing automobile. She had been 

 stripped of everything not absolutely 

 necessary. For instance, she had only 

 two machine guns; hence she was prac- 

 tically defenseless. 



To the necessity of greatly reducing the 

 amount of fuel so that an enormous quan- 

 tity of bombs might be dropped on Eng- 

 land, may be attributed the capture of the 

 L-49 on P'rench soil. Just how she lost 

 her way, it is needless to explain here; 

 the subject is discussed in the April 



issue of the Popular Science Month- 

 ly. It may be stated in passing, 

 however, that Zeppelins are guided by 

 wireless signals sent from German sta- 

 tions. The 

 capture of 

 the L-4 9 

 may be at- 

 t r i b u t e d 

 either to 

 those un- 

 explained 

 vagaries of 

 wireless 

 with which 



every 

 teur 

 tor is 

 i a r, or 



ama- 



opera- 



famil- 



to 



ingenious 

 radio decep- 

 tion on the 

 part of the 

 English or 

 French. Of 

 a fog-bound 

 dozen or more 



raiding squadron of a 

 ships, two returned safely on their regu- 

 lar course; six lost their way, drifted tem- 

 porarily over France, luckily for them un- 

 observed, and succeeded in stemming a 

 frigid, violent northeasterly gale that had 

 sprung up enough to regain German terri- 

 tory. The rest succumbed to attack and 

 came to the end of their supplies in a gale 

 which they had had to buffet with a 

 limited amount of fuel. Rising to an 

 altitude of 16,000 feet to escape shells and 

 pursuing airplanes, they encountered an 

 upper wind so violent that they drifted 



'i^ Kua<'l A ll.rbvrl 



This is the triangular keel (part of it at least) 

 from the ridge of which fuel tanks are 

 hung like clothes from a wardrobe pole 



