INSIDE AN AIRSHIP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1605, 31 August 1916, Page 4

INSIDE AN AIRSHIP.

PERIL OP THE FUMES

TROUSERED HEROINES,

Airships and gasbags have been much discussed of late, both in the Air Inquiry and out of it. Gasbags are used for naval scouting and for many other purposes, and there is a picturesque side to the work done my men and women in their production which is worth not-

On entering an airship factory, a sweet, not unpleasant, odour assails one’s nostrils. It is faint yet insistent, and reminds one of the smell of peardrops. This is the smell of the poisonous “dope” vised for dressing the gasbags, and it permeates the whole building, although the heavy doors of the doping dock are always kept closed. “THE BLUE GIRLS.”

The women in the factoiy- all wear .navy blue trousers, aiid many of them have their hair “bobbed,” so that they have somewhat the air of a chorus of “blue boys” from a pantomime production, although a second glance reveals the signs of work, and shows the grubbiness of their canvas ‘trews.” These “blue boys” are a gallant little band of bard workers, helping to give the Hun “what for,” and their male attire is no fanay-dress affectation.

On the iloor of one of the largo rooms is spread a gasbag in a flat state. It looks like some curious piece of patchwork indiarubber bedspread of Brobingagian.proportions, and the blue-trousered girls are working at it. They sit on the ground, lacing strings into eyelet holes, and doing a number of “pernickety” little jobs in the way of fixing rigging attachments and the fittings for slinging on the car. This work has to be done with great care and absolute accuracy, as everything must be- exact to a hairbreadth. There is a great deal of this delicate work to be (lone before a gasbag is ready for inflation.

In another vast hall stantis a half-inflated ship. It towers up to the roof, and there are women working inside it. When one sees hotv they have to got in one realises the need for short hair and male attire. The outside canvas near the ground is loose and floppy, as the outer envelope of the ship is open underneath, and it is necessary to pick up (his loose material and creep under it. The approved method is to go in backwards, holding up the heavy material with one’s bowed shoulders, and to grope one’s way in the Stygian gloom until one finds the manhole through which to crawl into the central chamber, which is sealed up and inflated. INSIDE THE ENVELOPE. The central, chamber is suffused with a golden light, which filters through the (wo thicknesses of material which stretch between the worker and the outer air. Along the floor girls are seated, lacing and arranging various things which can only be done from within. The heat is intense, and the smell of naptha from the rubber solution is most trying, but the girls work steadily on, and it seems that they only faint occasionally, when the weather is very hot!

Overhead in the inside of the ship is a layer of material, but one can look through this by putting head and shoulders through certain large round holes. Looking up at the vaulted roof of (he ship is most impressive; it looks so vast and (here is something Gothic about the arching of the golden ceiling of: (he envelope, on which one can note the long rip panel which is for use in an emergency —when the airship is obliged to descend without wasting time.

In another part of the building is the doping dock, where the inflated gasbags stand to receive their two dressings of chemical solution, which render them weatherproof, and tint them to the beautiful silver hue, which is the correct complexion. HEAVY WITH FUMES. The doping dock is a .curious sight. Imagine a great hall, in the x centre of which stands a regiment of large sausage-shaped balloons of tremendous size and varying shapes. Round one is a scaffolding so that the men may be able to reach its extreme apex. The air is heavy with the, fumes of dope,

which, though it smells so sweet, would choke the dopei-s if they did not wear little wire masks, which look for all the world like dog muzzles. Along one side of the ship stands the dopers, each with his cylinder and mechanism for spraying the ship, and each man steadily squirts out the solution at the panels in front of him. When everything within reach has been sprayed, orders to shift the ship are given, and the men stoop down under the big gas-bag, which stands on large rollers, and all heave together until she moves,, round and exposes a fresh area for doping. Doping is done by men in some factories and by women in, others. In spite of the fact that it is considered a dangerous occupation, owing to the poisonous nature of the dope used, it is most popular work, as dopers receive one day off in three, and the work is not heavy. The most unpleasant work in the preparation of gasbags is when anything has to be done to them after doping, as the fumes are very strong if work has to be done inside the ship, and if the dope has to be taken off, the chemical employed for this purpose has a very offensive odour.