anuary 24th, 1784. On that
day Brisson, a member of the Academy in Paris, read before that Society
a paper on airships and the methods to be utilized in propelling them.
He stated that the balloon, or envelope as it is now called, must be
cylindrical in shape with conical ends, the ratio of diameter to length
should be one to five or one to six and that the smallest
cross-sectional area should face the wind. He proposed that the method
of propulsion should be by oars, although he appeared to be by no means
sanguine if human strength would be sufficient to move them. Finally,
he referred to the use of different currents of the atmosphere lying
one above the other.

This paper caused a great amount of interest to be taken in
aeronautics, with the result that various Frenchmen turned their
attention to airship design and production. To France must be due the
acknowledgment that she was the pioneer in airship construction and to
her belongs the chief credit for early experiments.

At a later date Germany entered the lists and tackled the problems
presented with that thoroughness so characteristic of the nation. It
is just twenty-one years ago since Count Zeppelin, regardless of public
ridicule, commenced building his rigid airships, and in that time such
enormous strides were made that Germany, at the outbreak of the war,
was ahead of any other country in building the large airship.

In 1908 Italy joined the pioneers, and as regards the semi-rigid is in
that type still pre-eminent. Great Britain, it is rather sad to say,
adopted the policy of "wait and see," and, with the exception of a few
small ships described in the two succeeding chapters, had produced
nothing worthy of mention before the outbreak of the great European
war. She then bestirred herself, and we shall see later that she has
produced the largest fleet of airships built by any country and, while
pre-eminent with the non-rigid, is seriously challenging Germany for
the right to say that she has now built the finest rigid airship.

FRANCE

To revert to early history, in the same year in which Brisson read his
paper before the Academy, the Duke of Chartres gave the order for an
airship to the brothers Robert, who were mechanics in Paris. This ship
was shaped like a fish, on the supposition that an airship would swim
through the air like a fish through water. The gas-chamber was
provided with a double envelope, in order that it might travel for a