WHAT A ZEPPELIN IS LIKE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 738, 20 January 1915, Page 7

WHAT A ZEPPELIN IS LIKE.

Few military instruments in the war have coma in for so much discussion as the Zeppelin airships, yet, few people really know just what these formidable machines are like: In apl- - the machine resembles a lorg, narrow pencil with sixteen aides, its exact measurements -being 400 ft long and oOft in diameter. If a Zeppelin was placed vertically next to St. Paul's Cathodral it would prove to be over 100 ft taller than this historic building. The. body is constructed of Aluminium, and is so built on the girder principle that, despite its extreme lightness, it can withstand immense strain: Over this frame specially prepared rubberised silk ia stretched* . The interior of the envelops is not filled entirely with gas> as Is the case with the balloon. It ia divided up into sixteen compartments each of which contains its portion of hydrogen bags. These "ballooneta," as they are termed, look like sixteen sacks lined up inside the sausage-shape parent balloon envelope. By means of this constractionaLsystani the Zeppelin cannot be sunk unless half of its "balloonets" are robbed of their gas. Also these sections prevent the body of the airship being fsrced out of shape, through the wind resistance set up when the machine is forcing its way through the air at fifty miles an hour.

There are two cars to the airship, placed close under the main body, and eacii has a petrol-driven engine, driving propellers mounted on the aides of the main envelope. Engines developing 500 horse-power are required to force these machines through the air when loaded with a crew of twentylive men and some five tone of explosives and other equipment. A Zeppelin ia a costly production, and £"40,000 is required to build such a military weapon and equip it for destruclive purposes. The expense connected with these airship 3 does not end here. Great sheds must be erected, and gas - producing plants laid jown, so that the Zeppelin may have its daily feed of hydrogen. The speed of this typa of airship does not exceed fifty milse an hour, but an ordinary head wind can tremendously reduce the rate of travel of the machine. As for its climbing powers, the Zeppelin, unleßS its captain adopts the desperate expedient of throwing overboard all his armaments at once, seldom reaches a greater altitude than io,oooft, and then its upward progress ia slow. An aeroplane can climb 1000 ft in two minutes, and reach an altitude of 19,000 ft, hence it can ..quickly rise above a Zeppelin for bomb-dropping purposes.