All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

Dawn of Aerial Navigation 243 the balloon, the result being the death of the inventor and his assistant. Schwartz sought to overcome the loss of the gas by means of an impermeable envelope, using aluminium for this purpose, thus converting his craft into what is known as the rigid type as distinct from the supple or non-rigid form favoured by Renard and Krebs. This effort proved equally disastrous, as the vessel came to earth through failure of the driving system, to be subsequently broken up, partly by the wind and partly through the vandalism of the spectators, who eagerly sought souvenirs of the unique event. But in 1898 another worker appeared upon the scene—Graf von Zeppelin. By this time the high- speed internal combustion motor, owing to its success in the world of mechanical propulsion over the high- ways, had become recognised as a suitable engine for aeronautical duty, while a great deal of knowledge concerning the comparatively new metal aluminium had been acquired. Zeppelin admittedly knew nothing about aero- nautics, but he set out to build an airship which differed from all its prototypes in every sense, and particularly in one connection—its colossal dimensions. His first craft measured 420 feet in length by 38 feet in diameter. Two cars were provided—near the bow and towards the stern respectively—in each of which was placed a 16 horse-power motor, driving independent propellers. But it was the design of this monster craft which aroused the greatest interest, inasmuch as it differed entirely from any which had gone before. The outer shell was polygonal in section, and was built up of