CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



very largely due to Count von Zeppelin, whose ener- 

 gies have led to the construction of one airship after 

 another, and who is utterly undeterred by the repeat- 

 ed catastrophies that have overtaken his successive 

 crafts. The flight of the Zeppelin III from Friecrrich- 

 hafen on Lake Constance to Berlin and return in Au- 

 gust and September, 1909, afforded a demonstration 

 of the possibilities of aerial navigation that could not 

 be ignored. The ship was destroyed a little later, to be 

 sure; so were sundry of its successors, including the 

 Deutschland I and Deutschland II. But disaster 

 came while the ships were at anchor or near the 

 earth; when in -full flight the "Zeppelins" proved 

 themselves craft of great stability and dependa- 

 bleness. 



Equal praise must be given the balloons of a dif- 

 ferent type which have been developed by another 

 German, Major von Parseval, and which bear his 

 name. One of these has made regular trips out of 

 Berlin and has a record of 4,000 miles without a single 

 accident to its motors. The airship of Mr. Joseph 

 Briicker, designed to cross the ocean, starting from 

 the Cape Verde Islands, is of the Parseval type. 



The Zeppelin and Parseval balloons may be consid- 

 ered the leading representatives of the two chief types 

 of dirigibles. The essential difference is that the Zep- 

 pelin type of balloon has a rigid or semi-rigid frame- 

 work of aluminum over which the air-tight casing of 

 the balloon proper is stretched; whereas the Parseval 

 type is without such a framework. In each case the 

 balloon proper is composed of a series of disconnected 

 gas-bag compartments. Both types of balloons are 



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