British Airships, Past, Present and Future | Page 9

move from one end of the

ship to the other, the harness is worn and parachutes are disposed in the
keel and cars as are lifebuoys in seagoing vessels. Should an
emergency arise, the nearest parachute can be attached to the harness
by means of a spring hook, which is the work of a second, and a
descent can be made. It is worthy of note that there has never been a
fatal accident or any case of a parachute failing to open properly with a
man attached. The material embodied in this chapter, brief and
inadequate as it is, should enable the process of the development of the
airship to be easily followed. Much has been omitted that ought by
right to have been included, but, on the other hand, intricate
calculations are apt to be tedious except to mathematicians, and these
have been avoided as far as possible in the following pages.

CHAPTER II
EARLY AIRSHIPS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT TO THE
PRESENT DAY The science of ballooning had reached quite an
advanced stage by the middle of the eighteenth century, but the
construction of an airship was at that time beyond the range of
possibility. Discussions had taken place at various times as to the
practicability of rendering a balloon navigable, but no attempts had
been made to put these points of argument to a practical test. Airship
history may be said to date from January 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 long distance without loss of gas. The airship was
built in St. Cloud Park; in length it was 52 feet with a diameter of 82
feet, and was ellipsoidal in shape with a capacity of 30,000 cubic feet.
Oars were provided to propel it through the air, experiments having
proved that with two oars of six feet diameter a back pressure of 90 lb.
was obtained and with four oars 140 lb. On July 6th in the same year
the first ascent was made from St. Cloud. The passengers were the
Duke of Chartres, the two brothers Robert and Colin-Hulin. No valves
having been fitted, there was no outlet for the expansion of gas and the
envelope was on the point of bursting, when the Duke of Chartres, with
great presence of mind, seized a pole and forced an opening