d.

During the month of July, reports of the new German super-Zeppelins
began to appear in British reports, and a number of neutral
correspondents endeavored to obtain authentic data concerning them.
Conflicting descriptions arrived from many sources, and it was not
until a Swiss reporter, equipped with extremely powerful glasses,
watched the trial flights of two of these super-Zeppelins above Lake
Constance, that fairly reliable information could be compiled.

One of these airships leaves Friedrichshafen every week for duty in
the North Sea, and the factory on the shore of Lake Constance expects
to be able to complete five machines every month after July, 1916. The
super-Zeppelin has two armored gondolas, without a visible connection,
although it is highly probable that such communication is provided for
within the outer envelope. Each gondola carries six machine guns and,
in addition, two quick-firing guns, as well as an aerial
torpedo-launching device, which was first used in the extensive air
raids on England in the last week of July.

The super-Zeppelin contains approximately 1,000,000 cubic feet of gas
and has a capacity of ten tons useful load. Of this load, about four
tons can be composed of bombs or other munitions, the remainder being
needed for fuel, machinery, and the crew, as well as ballast and
provisions. The gross weight of a fully equipped and loaded
super-Zeppelin is thirty tons, or roughly, 60,000 pounds. The
envelope, which heretofore has been painted gray with liquid aluminum
paint, now is impregnated thoroughly with finely divided metal, by
means of the Schoop metal-coating process, which is heralded as one of
the most far-reaching improvements in aerial navigation. By its means
the airship envelope is made absolutely impervious to atmospheric
influences.

For its protection against antiaircraft fire the new super-Zeppelins
carry apparatus in each gondola, producing artificial clouds of such
size and intensity as to envelop and shroud completely the entire
airship, rendering it absolutely invisible from below. While this
cloud expands and gradually grows thinner, the airship rises rapidly
in a vertical direction, speeding away while under protection of the
self-made clouds.

The motors of the latest Zeppelins weigh only 595 pounds each,
although developing 240 horsepower, which means that one horsepower is
developed for every three and three-quarter pounds of metal used. They
are fitted with