378 



Popular Science Monthly 



The padded wall which sealed off the noise of the 

 engine room from the wireless cabin — another refinement 



rope walker who dines and sleeps in pre- 

 tended comfort on his lofty perch. Air- 

 ships can roll and pitch like any steamer 

 on the bounding deep, and so a hand- 

 railing in the shape of a wire cable is 

 provided on one side of this board- 

 walk. If a man stumbles he is caught by 

 a wide netting of rope cord, "the thick- 

 ness of a pencil" as the French said — a 

 netting placed, not to save his neck, but 

 to stiffen the cloth covering of the hull 

 against the gale. It is doubtful if that 

 thin netting would save him from the 

 abyss below. I traveled in the passenger 

 Zeppelin "Viktoria Luise" before the war. 

 I understand now why I was warned that 

 "passengers are not permitted outside the 

 cabin," by an officer who saw me peeping 

 through the door that led into the pas- 

 sageway. At night a man is guided along 

 this perilous board- 

 walk not by elec- 

 tric lights (they 

 would betray the 

 presence of the ship 

 to an anti-aircraft 

 batt ery below), 

 but by ghostly 

 patches of lumin- 

 ous paint. Even 

 in daytime the 

 place must be 

 weird and gloomy, 

 because the ship's 

 whole belly is 

 painted coal black 

 to make it invisi- 



lliL :^.ipci Zeppelin's wireless; tlie very 

 brains of the aerial monster. Note its size 



ble at night. The upper 

 surface of the hull is painted 

 white and gray to blend 

 with the clouds as seen 

 from an airplane. 



Other details of the L-49, 

 the dimensions, the power, 

 the number of engines and 

 propellers and their ar- 

 rangement only corroborate 

 what has been quite cor- 

 rectly described in previous 

 articles on Zeppelins, pub- 

 lished in the Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly. The only 

 important progress made 

 consists in torpedo-shaping 

 and stream-lining all the 

 cars. 



Although life on a super- 

 Zeppelin is not exactly luxurious, some 

 comforts at least are provided. The pro- 

 tection against the biting wind is perfect. 

 The powerful dynamos which supply the 

 radio apparatus also furnish current for 

 electric heating. 



The material of the gas bags is cotton- 

 lined goldbeaters' skin. To me the chief 

 advantage of such a fabric lies in the fact 

 that it remains gas-tight in the flabby, 

 even crumpled condition that the gas bags 

 so often must assume when they return to 

 a low altitude after they have been in- 

 ordinately expanded by a flight at 10,000 

 feet and more. 



This, then , is briefly the kind of machine 

 a Zeppelin is. Germany's well-guarded 

 secret is in the hands of the Allies at last, 

 and they will no doubt make good use of 

 it. They already have a good number of 

 air-craft of their 

 own, but pointers 

 are always wel- 

 come, even from 

 the enemy. If 

 there is anything 

 new or advanta- 

 geous about this 

 enemy machine 

 the Allied engi- 

 neers may be de- 

 pended upon to 

 utilize it to its full 

 value, for Germany 

 has not a monop- 

 oly of all the brains 

 and ingenuity. 



