were of
considerable size, were highly successful, and we became purchasers at
a later date of several.

The Zodiac Company also constructed a number of small ships which were
utilized during the war for anti-submarine patrol. It cannot be said,
however, that the French have fulfilled their early promise as airship
designers, the chief reason for this being that the airship is
peculiarly suitable for work at sea and the French relied on us to
maintain the commerce routes on the high seas and concentrated their
main efforts on defeating the Germans in the field, in which as all the
world acknowledges they were singularly successful and hold us under an
eternal obligation.

GERMANY

The progress and development of the airship in Germany must now be
considered; it will be seen that, although the production of
satisfactory ships was in very few hands, considerable success attended
their efforts in the early days of the twentieth century.

In 1812, Leppig built an airship at the cost of the State at Woronzowo
in Russia. This was of the shape of a fish with a rigid framework
beginning at the height of the longitudinal axis.

The lower keel-shaped part of the same formed the car. Two fans were
attached to the sides and a tail piece was provided behind to act as a
rudder. The ship was inflated, but structural damage occurred during
this operation and rendered it incapable of flight.

In 1836, Georg Rebenstein, of Nurnburg, was considering the use of the
fall of inclined planes to obtain horizontal motion.

Nothing of importance was produced until a much later date, when in
1885 M. Wolf constructed an envelope of 26,500 cubic feet. An engine
and propeller were fixed in a triangular framework in front of the
airship, supported by the steam pipe of a steam engine fixed under the
body of the envelope. The framework lacked rigidity, and the envelope
tore during inflation and the airship failed to ascend.

In the following year Dr. Woelfert, of Berlin, produced a cigar-shaped
envelope, to which was attached rigidly a long bamboo framework
containing the car. An 8 horse-power benzine Daimler motor drove a
twin-bladed aluminium propeller, and another propeller for vertical
movement was provided beneath the car. Four trial flights were
attempted, but on each occasion the motor gave unsatisfactory results,
and Woelfert sought to improve it with a benzine vaporizer of his own
pattern. This improvement was not a succes