Popular Science Monthly 



Vol. 88 

 No. 2 



239 Fourth Ave., New York 



February, 1916 



$1.50 

 Annually 



Mining the Air Against Zeppelins 



By Carl Dienstbach 



THE failure of the English high- 

 angle anti-aircraft artillery to de- 

 stroy Zeppelins attacking London 

 has been repeatedly demonstrated, and it 

 has stimulated many a scientific mind 

 to invent some more efficient means of 

 defense. At night the English aero- 

 planes are at a serious disadvantage, 

 since the glare of the ground search- 

 lights renders it almost impossible to 

 drop bombs on the enemy with any 

 degree of accuracy. Instead, they fall 

 into London, causing explosion and con- 

 flagration. The same danger exists in 

 firing upward against the almost invis- 

 ible and swiftly moving Zeppelins. 



Joseph Steinmetz, an American in- 

 ventor, proposes to mine the air with 

 bomb-carrying balloons. Small hydrogen 

 balloons, connected in pairs or groups by 

 piano wire (weighing about ten pounds 

 to the mile) are to be set adrift when 

 the Zeppelins are over London. Accord- 

 ing to the inventor, they would rise 

 rapidly and enmesh the enemy's aircraft. 

 Attached to the balloon units are small 

 hook-trigger bombs of high explosive 

 contact and incendiary torches, which 

 are to be drawn into the Zeppelin's gas 

 bag with destructive results. The 

 method is to be further elaborated by 

 carrying nets of very wide mesh, an idea 

 successfully applied in submarine war- 

 fare. In the opinion of Mr. Steinmetz, 

 even though the chance of a Zeppelin's 

 fouling the balloon-connecting wires is 

 only one in a thousand, that one chance 

 is well worth the attempt and expense. 



At first blush this scheme of mining 

 the air as a defense against Zeppelins 

 is attractively plausible. Undoubtedly, 

 if the atmosphere above London were 



full of floating air-mines, it would not 

 be so easy to bombard the town from 

 aloft. \\ hen it comes to making this 

 arrangement practical, however, serious 

 difficulties are immediately encountered. 

 Flotation in air is not like flotation in 

 water. A balloon left to itself invariably 

 goes up or comes down. It is generally 

 considered a wonderful accomplishment 

 if a balloonist knows the aerial ocean 

 well enough to keep his craft in regions 

 where sun, winds and vapors do not con- 

 tinually force it from its level, thus 

 causing him to use up gas and ballast 

 and shortening the trip. Over a great 

 city, this procedure would be extremely 

 hazardous. After the air has been 

 thoroughly sown with mine-balloons, it 

 may snow. Imagine the result ! With 

 a wind blowing the balloons about dur- 

 ing a snow storm, and their bombs strik- 

 ing roofs right and left, the inhabitants 

 of London might prefer the attacks of 

 the Zeppelins. Think of the conflaga- 

 tion these clusters of balloons might 

 cause ! 



The whole plan harks back to the ex- 

 periment made in Austrian campaign 

 against \^enice in 1849. Nothing was 

 done by halves at that time. No less 

 than two hundred small hydrogen bal- 

 loons, each carrying a twenty-five or 

 thirty pound bomb, were liberated, but 

 they refused to stay at the right level. 

 They continued to rise until an upper 

 current of opposite direction found them 

 and returned them to the senders. 



Even if the mine-balloons remained 

 over London in their allotted places, 

 there are other factors to be considered 

 which could very likely result in a catas- 

 trophe. To carry the smallest bombs, 



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