The Mastery of the Air Part 2

The first Spencer air-ship was built for experimental purposes. It was able to lift only one person of light weight, and was thus a great contrast to the modern dirigible which carries a crew of thirty or forty people. Mr. Spencer made several exhibition flights in his little craft at the Crystal Palace, and so successful were they that he determined to construct a much larger craft.

The second Spencer air-ship, first launched in 1903, was nearly 100 feet long. There was one very important distinction between this and other air-ships built at that time: the propeller was placed in front of the craft, instead of at the rear, as is the case in most air-ships.

Thus the craft was pulled through the air much after the manner of an aeroplane.

In the autumn of 1903 great enthusiasm was aroused in London by the announcement that Mr. Spencer proposed to fly from the Crystal Palace round the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral and back to his starting-place.

This was a much longer journey than that made by Santos-Dumont when he won the Deutsch prize.

Tens of thousands of London's citizens turned out to witness the novel sight of a giant air-ship hovering over the heart of their city, and it was at once seen what enormous possibilities there were in the employment of such craft in time of war. The writer remembers well moving among the dense crowds and hearing everywhere such remarks as these:

"What would happen if a few bombs were thrown over the side of the air-ship?" "Will there be air-fleets in future, manned by the soldiers or sailors?" Indeed the uppermost thought in people's minds was not so much the possibility of Mr. Spencer being able to complete his journey successfully--nearly everyone recognized that air-ship construction had now advanced so far that it was only a matter of time for an ideal craft to be built--but that the coming of the air-ship was an affair of grave international importance.

The great craft, glistening in the sunlight, sailed majestically from the south, but when it reached the Cathedral it refused to turn round and face the wind. Try how he might, Mr. Spencer could not make any progress. It was a thrilling sight to witness this battle with the elements, right over the heart of the largest city in the world. At times the air-ship seemed to be standing quite still, head to wind.

Unfortunately, half a gale had sprung up, and the 24-horse-power engine was quite incapable of conquering so stiff a breeze, and making its way home again. After several gallant attempts to circle round the dome, Mr.

Spencer gave up in despair, and let the monster air-ship drift with the wind over the northern suburbs of the city until a favourable landing-place near Barnet was reached, where he descended.

The Spencer air-ships are of the non-rigid type. Spencer air-ship A comprises a gas vessel for hydrogen 88 feet long and 24 feet in diameter, with a capacity of 26,000 cubic feet. The framework is of polished ash wood, made in sections so that it can easily be taken to pieces and transported, and the length over all is 56 feet. Two propellers 7 feet 6 inches diameter, made of satin-wood, are employed to drive the craft, which is equipped with a Green engine of from 35 to 40 horse-power.

Spencer's air-ship B is a much larger vessel, being 150 feet long and 35 feet in diameter, with a capacity for hydrogen of 100,000 cubic feet.

The framework is of steel and aluminium, made in sections, with cars for ten persons, including aeronauts, mechanics, and pa.s.sengers. It is driven with two petrol aerial engines of from 50 to 60 horse-power.

About the time that Mr. Spencer was experimenting with his large air-ship, Dr. Barton, of Beckenham, was forming plans for an even larger craft. This he laid down in the s.p.a.cious grounds of the Alexandra Park, to the north of London. An enormous shed was erected on the northern slopes of the park, but visitors to the Alexandra Palace, intent on a peep at the monster air-ship under construction, were sorely disappointed, as the utmost secrecy in the building of the craft was maintained.

The huge balloon was 43 feet in diameter and 176 feet long, with a gas capacity of 235,000 cubic feet. To maintain the external form of the envelope a smaller balloon, or compensator, was placed inside the larger one. The framework was of bamboo, and the car was attached by about eighty wire-cables. The wooden deck was about 123 feet in length. Two 50-horse-power engines drove four propellers, two of which were at either end.

The inventor employed a most ingenious contrivance to preserve the horizontal balance of the air-ship. Fitted, one at each end of the carriage, were two 50-gallon tanks. These tanks were connected with a long pipe, in the centre of which was a hand-pump. When the bow of the air-ship dipped, the man at the pump could transfer some of the water from the fore-tank to the after-tank, and the ship would right itself.

The water could similarly be transferred from the after-tank to the fore-tank when the stern of the craft pointed downwards.

There were many reports, in the early months of 1905, that the air-ship was going to be brought out from the shed for its trial flights, and the writer, in common with many other residents in the vicinity of the park, made dozens of journeys to the shed in the expectation of seeing the mighty dirigible sail away. But for months we were doomed to disappointment; something always seemed to go wrong at the last minute, and the flight had to be postponed.

At last, in 1905, the first ascent took place. It was unsuccessful. The huge balloon, made of tussore silk, cruised about for some time, then drifted away with the breeze, and came to grief in landing.

A clever inventor of air-ships, a young Welshman, Mr. E. T. Willows, designed in 1910, an air-ship in which he flew from Cardiff to London in the dark--a distance of 139 miles. In the same craft he crossed the English Channel a little later.

Mr. Willows has a large shed in the London aerodrome at Hendon, and he is at present working there on a new air-ship. For some time he has been the only successful private builder of air-ships in Great Britain. The Navy possess a small Willows air-ship.

Messrs. Vickers, the famous builders of battleships, are giving attention to the construction of air-ships for the Navy, in their works at Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness. This firm has erected an enormous shed, 540 feet long, 150 feet broad, and 98 feet high. In this shed two of the largest air-ships can be built side by side. Close at hand is an extensive factory for the production of hydrogen gas.

At each end of the roof are towers from which the difficult task of safely removing an air-ship from the shed can be directed.

At the time of writing, the redoubtable DORA (Defence of the Realm Act) forbids any but the vaguest references to what is going forward in the way of additions to our air forces. But it may be stated that air-ships are included in the great constructive programme now being carried out. It is not long since the citizens of Glasgow were treated to the spectacle of a full-sized British "Zep" circling round the city prior to her journey south, and so to regions unspecified. And use, too, is being found by the naval arm for that curious hybrid the "Blimp", which may be described as a cross between an aeroplane and an air-ship.

CHAPTER VIII. The First Attempts to Steer a Balloon

For nearly a century after the invention of the Montgolfier and Charlier balloons there was not much progress made in the science of aeronautics.

True, inventors such as Charles Green suggested and carried out new methods of inflating balloons, and scientific observations of great importance were made by balloonists both in Britain and on the Continent. But in the all-important work of steering the huge craft, progress was for many years practically at a standstill. All that the balloonist could do in controlling his balloon was to make it ascend or descend at will; he could not guide its direction of flight. No doubt pioneers of aeronautics early turned their attention to the problem of providing some apparatus, or some method, of steering their craft.

One inventor suggested the hoisting of a huge sail at the side of the envelope; but when this was done the balloon simply turned round with the sail to the front. It had no effect on the direction of flight of the balloon. "Would not a rudder be of use?" someone asked. This plan was also tried, but was equally unsuccessful.

Perhaps some of us may wonder how it is that a rudder is not as serviceable on a balloon as it is on the stern of a boat. Have you ever found yourself in a boat on a calm day, drifting idly down stream, and going just as fast as the stream goes? Work the rudder how you may, you will not alter the boat's course. But supposing your boat moves faster than the stream, or by some means or other is made to travel slower than the current, then your rudder will act, and you may take what direction you will.

It was soon seen that if some method could be adopted whereby the balloon moved through the air faster or slower than the wind, then the aeronaut would be able to steer it. Nowadays a balloon's pace can be accelerated by means of a powerful motor-engine, but the invention of the petrol-engine is very recent. Indeed, the cause of the long delay in the construction of a steerable balloon was that a suitable engine could not be found. A steam-engine, with a boiler of sufficient power to propel a balloon, is so heavy that it would require a balloon of impossible size to lift it.

One of the first serious attempts to steer a balloon by means of engine power was that made by M. Giffard in 1852. Giffard's balloon was about 100 feet long and 40 feet in diameter, and resembled in shape an elongated cigar. A 3-horse-power steam-engine, weighing nearly 500 pounds, was provided to work a propeller, but the enormous weight was so great in proportion to the lifting power of the balloon that for a time the aeronaut could not leave the ground. After several experiments the inventor succeeded in ascending, when he obtained a speed against the wind of about 6 miles an hour.

A balloon of great historical interest was that invented by Dupuy du Lonie, in the year 1872. Instead of using steam he employed a number of men to propel the craft, and with this air-ship he hoped to communicate with the besieged city of Paris.

His greatest speed against a moderate breeze was only about 5 miles an hour, and the endurance of the men did not allow of even this speed being kept up for long at a time.

Dupuy foreshadowed the construction of the modern dirigible air-ship by inventing a system of suspension links which connected the car to the envelope; and he also used an internal ballonet similar to those described in Chapter X.

In the year 1883 Tissandier invented a steerable balloon which was fitted with an electric motor of 1 1/2 horse-power. This motor drove a propeller, and a speed of about 8 miles an hour was attained. It is interesting to contrast the power obtained from this engine with that of recent Zeppelin air-ships, each of which is fitted with three or four engines, capable of producing over 800 horse-power.

The first instance on record of an air-ship being steered back to its starting-point was that of La France. This air-craft was the invention of two French army captains, Reynard and Krebs. By special and much-improved electric motors a speed of about 14 miles an hour was attained.

Thus, step by step, progress was made; but notwithstanding the promising results it was quite evident that the engines were far too heavy in proportion to the power they supplied. At length, however, the internal-combustion engine, such as is used in motor-cars, arrived, and it became at last possible to solve the great problem of constructing a really-serviceable, steerable balloon.

CHAPTER IX. The Strange Career of Count Zeppelin

In Berlin, on March 8, 1917, there pa.s.sed away a man whose name will be remembered as long as the English language is spoken. For Count Zeppelin belongs to that little band of men who giving birth to a work of genius have also given their names to the christening of it; and so the patronymic will pa.s.s down the ages.

In the most sinister sense of the expression Count Zeppelin may be said to have left his mark deep down upon the British race. In course of time many old scores are forgiven and forgotten, but the Zeppelin raids on England will survive, if only as a curious failure. Their failure was both material and moral. Anti-aircraft guns and our intrepid airmen brought one after another of these destructive monsters blazing to the ground, and their work of "frightfulness" was taken up by the aeroplane; while more lamentable still was the failure of the Zeppelin as an instrument of terror to the civil population. In the long list of German miscalculations must be included that which pictured the victims of bombardment from the air crying out in terror for peace at any price.

Before the war Count Zeppelin was regarded by the British public as rather a picturesque personality. He appeared in the romantic guise of the inventor struggling against difficulties and disasters which would soon have overwhelmed a man of less resolute character. Even old age was included in his handicap, for he was verging on seventy when still arming against a sea of troubles.

The ebb and flow of his fortunes were followed with intense interest in this country, and it is not too much to say that the many disasters which overtook his air-ships in their experimental stages were regarded as world-wide calamities.

When, finally, the Count stood on the brink of ruin and the Kaiser stepped forward as his saviour, something like a cheer went up from the British public at this theatrical episode. Little did the audience realize what was to be the outcome of the a.s.sociation between these callous and masterful minds.

And now for a brief sketch of Count Zeppelin's life-story. He was born in 1838, in a monastery on an island in Lake Constance. His love of adventure took him to America, and when he was about twenty-five years of age he took part in the American Civil War. Here he made his first aerial ascent in a balloon belonging to the Federal army, and in this way made that acquaintance with aeronautics which became the ruling pa.s.sion of his life.

After the war was over he returned to Germany, only to find another war awaiting him--the Austro-Prussian campaign. Later on he took part in the Franco-Prussian War, and in both campaigns he emerged unscathed.

But his heart was not in the profession of soldiering. He had the restless mind of the inventor, and when he retired, a general, after twenty years' military service, he was free to give his whole attention to his dreams of aerial navigation. His greatest ambition was to make his country pre-eminent in aerial greatness.

Friends to whom he revealed his inmost thoughts laughed at him behind his back, and considered that he was "a little bit wrong in his head".

Certainly his ideas of a huge aerial fleet appeared most extravagant, for it must be remembered that the motor-engine had not then arrived, and there appeared no reasonable prospect of its invention.

Perseverance, however, was the dominant feature of Count Zeppelin's character; he refused to be beaten. His difficulties were formidable.

In the first place, he had to master the whole science of aeronautics, which implies some knowledge of mechanics, meteorology, and electricity.

This in itself was no small task for a man of over fifty years of age, for it was not until Count Zeppelin had retired from the army that he began to study these subjects at all deeply.

The next step was to construct a large shed for the housing of his air-ship, and also for the purpose of carrying out numerous costly experiments. The Count selected Friedrichshafen, on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Constance, as his head-quarters. He decided to conduct his experiments over the calm waters of the lake, in order to lessen the effects of a fall. The original shed was constructed on pontoons, and it could be turned round as desired, so that the air-ship could be brought out in the lee of any wind from whatsoever quarter it came.

It is said that the Count's private fortune of about L25,000 was soon expended in the cost of these works and the necessary experiments. To continue his work he had to appeal for funds to all his friends, and also to all patriotic Germans, from the Kaiser downwards.