96 



i)lsc.()Vi;i{V 



be considered only as an emergency method, and not 

 to be relied upon in commercial flying. 



Various experiments have also been conducted 

 throughout airship history with the mooring mast. 

 At Farnljorough. Kingsnorth, and Wormwood Scrubbs, 

 masts of different designs were tried, and gave promise 

 of better results in the future. Towards the end of 

 1917. most satisfactory trials were carried out with a 

 new design of mast, using a small non-rigid airship. 

 Encouraged by these, a large mast was designed and 

 manufactured for the mooring of rigid airships. In 

 this case the ship was secured by the extreme nose 

 into a specially constructed socket at the head of the 

 mast. The structure revolves on roller bearings, and 

 as the ship is held rigidly, there is no danger of her 

 " paying off " before the wind. 



Gas and water trunks are led to the top of the mast, 

 and from thence into the hull structure of the ship, 

 with the result that the difficulty of regassing or 

 refuelling is eliminated entirely. The trials which 

 have been held up to date are eminently satisfactory, 

 and are continuing at present at Pulham Airship 

 Station with R33 and an improved type of mast. 



There seems every reason to anticipate that the mast 

 will be a complete solution of the mooring problem, 

 and at the same time of regular flying of airships. In 

 the future, the shed will be entered only on the occasion 

 of periodical refits, as the surface vessel enters a dry 

 dock. 



In the days to come, we can envisage the mooring 

 mast transformed into a mooring tower equipped with 

 lifts for passengers and cargo. The giant air liner 

 will pick up her moorings as easily as the Cunarder 

 on entering port. Water, oil, and fuel will be pumped 

 into the ship through mains incorporated in the tower. 



The whole future of the airship is at stake on the 

 efforts of the technical staff now working at Pulham. 

 For this reason, it may be hoped that whole-hearted 

 support will be forthcoming to assist in bringing its 

 efforts to a satisfactory conclusion. 



A Textbook of Inorganic Chemistry. By J. R. P.\rting- 

 TON, M.B.E., D.Sc. (Macmillan, 25s. net.) 

 A thoroughly good book for University men. The 

 price, however, is high. It supersedes the existing text- 

 books of its class. Good diagrams and good printing. 

 A number of slips have eluded the proof-reader. The 

 parts of the subjects on which the author is an authority — 

 Physical Chemistry, the .Mkalies, etc. — are particularly 

 well done. The idea adopted throughout of referring the 

 atomic weights of elements to hydrogen as unity is a 

 thoroughly bad one, and shows that the author does not 

 appreciate recent work on radio-activity and on " iso- 

 topes." It should develop into a good second edition. 



The Zeppelin Giant 

 Monoplane 



By E. Sinclair Puckett 



One of the most curious results of the war was the 

 almost complete disappearance of the monoplane. 

 The writer saw only one solitary specimen during the 

 latter half of the war, and that was a Fokker, a type 

 that was used in the Near and Middle East at that 

 time. 



And yet, if one takes the four years immediately 

 preceding the war, one finds that of 170 standard 

 machines of all nationalities, no less than 108 were 

 monoplanes. 



Now that we are waging the fiercest peace on record, 

 aeroplane design seems turning the other way, and the 

 development of the monoplane as a commercial 

 machine threatens to oust the biplane from its strong 

 position. 



There are several reasons for this, the chief one 

 being economy. A monoplane is generally simpler 

 to erect, rig, and repair ; and is very often cheaper to 

 build. But most important of all, it can be flown 

 at a moderate cruising speed and with considerable 

 load, with a comparatively low-powered engine. This 

 means considerably decreased petrol consumption 

 and less initial cost of engine. This will be verj* 

 much the case when high-lift wings of the newest 

 type are in general use. An e.xample of this is the 

 " wooden " Fokker monoplane recently seen in this 

 country. This machine carries six people at 80 

 miles an hour with a 180 h.p. engine. A single-engined 

 biplane of a well-known cross-Channel type carries 

 eight people at 120 miles an hour with a 450 h.p. 

 engine, and the latter engine consumes probably five 

 times the amount of petrol and oil that the former 

 does. 



High-lift wings are, of course, those that give the 

 highest lift-drift ratio, or, in other words, those that 

 give the greatest proportion of lift with the least 

 resistance or obstruction to the air through which the\' 

 pass. Racing machines have wings of minimum lift 

 and small resistance to the air, that is to say, wings 

 of fiat, narrow section and small angle of incidence. 

 High-lift wings are being mainly developed along 

 three lines, represented by the German type wing 

 and the British .\lula and Handley-Page wings. 



The German wing, with which we are concerned 

 here, has very great camber (curvature), very great 

 thickness, and a very full, round leading edge. This 

 wing is found to give a very considerably improved 

 lift. 



But the most important development in modern 



