s life to its development. From the
beginning he met with great difficulties. His first ships proved
mechanical failures, and after these difficulties were overcome he met
with a series of accidents which almost put an end to his efforts. By
popular subscription, and by government support, he was able to
continue, and when the war began Germany had thirty-five dirigible
balloons of the Zeppelin and other types, many of them as much as 490
feet long.

The Zeppelin balloon, called the Zeppelin from the name of its inventor,
was practically a vast ship, capable of carrying a load of about fifteen
thousand pounds. It would carry a crew of twenty men or more, fuel for
the engines, provisions, a wireless installation, and armament with
ammunition. For a journey of twenty hours such a vessel would need at
least seven thousand pounds of fuel. It would probably be able to carry
about two tons of explosives. These Zeppelins could travel great
distances. Before the war one of them flew from Lake Constance to
Berlin, a continuous flight of about one thousand miles, in thirty-one
hours.

These great aerial warships were given a thorough trial by the Germans.
They disliked to admit that they had made a costly mistake in adding
them to their armament. It soon turned out, however, that the Zeppelins
were practically useless in battle. Whatever they could do, either for
scouting purposes or in dropping explosives behind the enemy's lines,
could be better done by the airplane. The French and the English, who
before the war had decided that the airplane was the more important
weapon, were right. But the Germans did not give up their costly toy so
easily, and they determined to use it in the bombardment of cities and
districts situated far away from the German line, in dropping bombs, not
upon fortifications, or armed camps where they might meet with
resistance, but upon peaceful non-belligerents in the streets of great
unfortified cities.

It was their policy of frightfulness once again. And once again they had
made a mistake. The varied expeditions of the Zeppelin airships sent
from Germany to bombard Paris, or to cross the Channel and, after
dropping bombs on seaside resorts, to wander over the city of London in
the hope of spreading destruction there, did little real damage and
their net effects, from a military point of view, were practically nil.

The first Zeppelin raid upon England took place on January 19, 1915. The
Zeppelins