EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2948, 7 December 1916, Page 9

EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT

Essential parts op L 33

INTACT

MURDER MECHANISM

(By H. W. Wilson, in the "Daily Mail. 1 ') .

. All the secrets of the mysterious Super-Zeppelin are now known to tha British air services, including the teecrct of bringing these hugo and delicto gas-bagg down. : So much I can say after a closo inspection of tho super-Zeppelin L 33, Vhich on September 23 "was forced by jlour fire' to alight in Eastern Essex, Unci which has supplied our designers vivith all the drawings and patterns (that they rcijuire. This is tho first description of a super-Zeppelin 'ever published by .an eye-witness. ' ; Tho externals of the airship, her 'tutor fabrics and gas-bags, wero destroyed by fire. But all tbo essentials ireraain, all the elaborate contrivances jiof murder, all the gear for operating Vthe engines, all tho tackle for manoeuvring the ship. i The skeleton of the monster is !not visible until you draw very fcloso to it. It is a strange, spidery affair of delicate trellis work in Ijsilvery metal with no sheen and no sfcinkle, but a sepulohral rustle. _ The 'girders are of almost inconceivable lightness. What looks a prodigiously jbulky portion of the framework can bo 'lifted with one hand. Instead of weighting a'hundredweight it scalcs a few •pounds. Tho whole structure seems 'Bice a device from another world and ianotlier ago. .

Standing by the wreck wo can. refconstruct tlie scene aloft as the vessel '(sho is 080 ft. long; and 72ft.- in diameter, or rather larger m hulk than the LusiJtania) whirled through the air. to attack our British women and children at a speed of some 65 miles an hour—for nights were usually chosen when no .wind was blowing, and her engines, will propel her at that speed in a. calm. CLTie. work of navigation is carried out from the forward gondola, .which was iof largs siz®,. 30ft-. or so long. .This gondola was made of stout aluminium and in appearance closely resembled a icovered-in boat, though from the weight of the machinery inside it it would not have floated.

The Murder Keyboard. It was divided into three compartments. : In the first was tho captain, right in the bows of the ship, looking through non-inflammable celluloid .windows, which were pierced through tho cotton fabric that closed the gondola in above. ' Conveniently placed for him were two wheels to operate the elevating a»d horizontal steering rudders, and other wheels 'controlling the water ballast and the petrol tanks. Beforo him was a little keyboard, with which murder was. done. . It showed •ixty small buttons like the pushes of an electric bell, each of which operated one bomb-dropping hook and released "a bomb. Another lover withdrew, a shutter which had to be withdrawal before the bomb could fall. Astern of the captain's , cabin in the teame gondola was a .little room, 6ft. by 4ft., used by tho wireless operator, and containing . the\ wireless' instruments, which -were-supplied with current from sis dynamos, one attached to each engine, aB -will presently be seen, thus leaving_ nothing to chance. iAslorn of the wireless room, again, etill in the same gondola, and.isolated irom the wireless room Jy an airspace of' about an inch, were one Of the six engines and a dynamo, also two machine guns of ordinary German calibre, on tripod mountings of amazing lightness. ; 1 be'engine is -.still in good working order. It is of Maybach (Mercedes) 'type and develops 240-h.p. Ono of the 'great surprises of this airship is that ■ immediately behind the forward gon:dola and driven by. its engine is a propeller amidships, underneath the ship. ..There was nothing of the kind in the Zeppelins brought <?own in France and at Salonika. It is one of tho distinctive features of the super-Zeppelin.' "Cat-Walk" Inside.

. To pass from this gondola down the . ship one had to climb through a kind of trap-door framed iu aluminium into •the "cat-walk," • a perilously narrow : gangway only 9in. wide that mns the ~whole length' of' the keel. On 'the aluminium girder • framings the thinnest of planking was laid. Some'part' of it has survived the fire and could ho very plainly seen. Passing down this "cat-walk" inside the w'alls of thin cotton fabric, greyish.- white, one reached the compartment containing bombs. Here hung the missile on sixty hooks, and below them was the, sliding shut-' tor. In the "cat-walk"-was another in teresting fillip a lavatory with fittings of fairy lightness. Near the centre of the ship,. pro-1 grossing from bow to btern, were suspended two other gondolas. These hung side by side, spaced out a little on either beam. They are of much smaller size, only 18ft. . long, and each contains one Maybach 240h.p. engine, one dynamo, and one ma-chine-gun. Tho engines aro fitted with ingenious starting gear, whioh. wo were told, works exceedingly well. Each engine drives a propeller which is stayed out at the side of the ship with aluminium alloy struts. These aro circular, but 1o diminish tho wind resistance the Hun has, carefully covered them with thin threo-ply wood in a stream-line casing of astounding lightness and efficiency. . In the amidships gondolas were neat little aluminium cupboards, which at tho time of the capturo contained Hun comestibles. They were of good design and took littlo space. The last and fourth gondola was placed astern in the centre lino and was'of largo size, about 30ft. long. It contained two machine-guns and three engines, all of Maybach typo and 240 h.p., each driving one dynamo and' propeller. Two of theso propellers wero stayed out on either beam of the airship; the third was at the stern, about 30ft. in from the end of the ship. A similar propeller was observed in the Zeppelin brought down by the French at Itevigny. 1440 Horse-Power. Thus this ship has six propellers in all and engines of 1440 h.p., as against four propellers and engines of 540 h.p. in tho first naval Zeppelin. Thiv propellers were connected with tho engines by aluminium shafting, which seemed to bo of great strength. But a largo piece of one shaft broko away from tbiu sbip, and fell at a distance of three miles. Whether it ivas through damage from gun-fire is not certain, but the airship showed marks of hits and seemed to have been struck on her petrol tanks. No observation car for lowering was found, but it is possiblo that if she carrie-d one it was thrown overboard shortly beforo sho lauded, as she made an elfort to proceed to sea and did go soma littlo distanco out before returning and making her landing. Tho reason nho camo down was prosumablj that the breaking of this shaft and loss o? petrol mado. it'impossible for her to JXOE3 the North Sea. She threw, out

many objects, including most of her guns] Tne interior of the airship, as it now is, in a somewhat dismantled stato, has been compared with that of tho Crystal Palace. Tho comparison is not satisfactory ; there is an cerio fairy-like effect in tho great framework, _ which has visibly sagged down amidships and has now in places been cut away for closer examination. An extraordinary tanglo of wires stretches from girder to pirder, and makes it appear as though gigantic spiders had been at work. These wires, which are exquisitely attached 1 to the framework, were used to keep it taut, and can be tightened by a central cable which runs froin tho bow to tho stern and has an arrangement for tightening of the simplest and most efficient charRotor. Possibly tho work of making tho ship taut can be carried out when she is still in tlio air.

The gas was contained in 24. ballonets, each connected by a valve with a central gas supply pipe. Tho ballonets were burnt, but enough of tho fabric remains to show that it was of a think silk or cotton, water- and gas-proofed. They were separated, not, as some havo supposed, by sheot aluminium bulkheads, but by spider-webs of wire, a web between each pair of balloneta. The gas capacity was 2 million cubic feet, nearly thrice that of tho first, naval Zeppelin, and the total weighfc in tho air _50 tons, of which 9 tons was aluminium framing. Of this tho weight of bombs would probably be 1} to 2 tons; tho petrol tanks could contain 2000 gallons. A mark on one of them gave the date ol the ship. It read in red paint:

| H 14 7 16. So that she was apparently completed on July 14, 1910. For defence against attack from above tho super-Zeppelin was well equipped. Forward 1 were two_ gun platforms near the noso of tho ship, in each of which was mounted a .sin. (half-an-inch) quick-firing gun. A similar platform was placed astern, so that in all three .sin. guns wero mounted' on the top of the ship. Thoy were kept well away from the ventilators which carried off escaping gas. Tho tales that between the balloonets and the outer cover is a chamber Warmed by gas from tho engine exhaust do not seein to be true, though tho exhaust from tho engines is led Tip through the airship and thus kept its interior tolerably warm.' .

The fabric used for the outer cover at a little distance looks liko newspaper printed with, microscopic type. It is exceedingly tough, and though thin can scarcely bo torn, and is difficult to cut. - It resembles a very strong twill. The crew were not—as somo might have expected—chosen for their lightness. They were a mixed assortment, light and heavy men, and numbered 22 in all.

There was an object which seems to have-been a smoke-producing apparatus, to,enable the airship, to make her own clouds.

Many of • the parts have now been removed for use by .our constructors, for whom also the aluminium alloy (worth £400 a ton) will bo smelted down.