22. Letter to Banks, November 21, 1783, quoted in G. H. Bryan and E. H. Harper, “Modern Aeronautics,” Nature 83 (1910), March 31, pp. 132–34.
23. Franklin reiterated the issue to other correspondents. As he wrote to his friend Richard Price, “All the conversation here at present turns on the Balloons…and the means of managing them so as to give Men the Advantage of Flying.” Quoted in Crouch, The Eagle Aloft, p. 26.
24. Keen, “ ‘Balloonomania,’ ” p. 515.
25. P. Bradshaw, Jr., “The Role of Technology in the Failure of the Rigid Airship as an Invention,” Ph.D. diss., University of Florida (1975), pp. 32–35.
26. Keen, “ ‘Balloonomania,’ ” p. 516.
27. The contemporary debates are discussed in Gillespie, “Ballooning in France and Britain, 1783–1786,” pp. 257–58. See also the excellent summary in the Westminster Review, quoted at length in Turnor (ed.), Astra Castra, esp. p. 313.
28. Gillespie, “Ballooning in France and Britain, 1783–1786,” pp. 257–58.
29. The Colonist (Australia), “Australian Steam Navigation,” December 22, 1838, carried a report on the controversy.
30. For standard contemporary opinion on the problem, see D. Lardner, Treatise on Hydrostatics and Pneumatics (Boston, Mass.: Stimpson and Clapp, 1832), pp. 148–50. Lardner was a longtime enemy of Brunel’s and lost consistently in their clashes.
31. For an account of the Great Western’s arrival in New York, see the lengthy reprint of the Quarterly Review article in Turnor (ed.), Astra Castra, pp. 300–301.
32. On the remarkable Porter, see J. Lipman, Rufus Porter Rediscovered: Artist, Inventor, Journalist, 1792–1884 (New York: Clarkson W. Potter, 1980); Crouch, The Eagle Aloft, pp. 292–318; C. E. McCluer, “Rufus Porter and His ‘Flying Ship,’ ” Scientific American, January 8, 1910, p. 30.
33. R. Porter, Aerial Navigation: The Practicability of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New-York to California in Three Days, Fully Demonstrated: With a Full Description of a Perfect Aerial Locomotive, with Estimates of Capacity, Speed, and Cost of Construction (New York: H. Smith, 1849).
4. Aerial Navigation
1. It must be borne in mind that figures and details regarding Giffard’s dirigible are not just sparse but differ in several respects (for instance, his engine/boiler weight is written as either 350 lbs or 330 lbs, and the weight-to-horsepower ratio ranges from 110 to 117). The differences, however, do not vary so much as to materially affect conclusions as to general performance. A key near-contemporary resource on Giffard is O. Chanute, Aerial Navigation: A Lecture Delivered to the Students of Sibley College, Cornell University (New York: Railroad and Engineering Journal, 1891), pp. 7–9; see also R. P. Hallion, Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity Through the First World War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 83; M. Kelly, Steam in the Air: The Application of Steam Power in Aviation During the 19th and 20th Centuries (Barnsley, U.K.: Pen & Sword, 2006), pp. 27–30; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 2; and P. Stokes, “Power for Flight in the Victorian Era,” Aerospace 11 (1984), no. 10, p. 12. My back-of-the-envelope estimates as to Giffard’s useful lift are based on a typical composition of coal gas consisting of hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and ethylene, but figures vary depending on altitude, pressure, temperature, and humidity.
2. On Lowe’s balloons, see M. Baldwin, With Brass and Gas: An Illustrated and Embellished Chronicle of Ballooning in Mid-Nineteenth Century America (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1967), pp. 211–38.
3. G. Glaser, “The Paris Electrical Exhibition,” Science 2 (1881), no. 63, September 10, 1881, pp. 430–33; Anon., “Electric Railroads in Paris,” Science 2 (1881), no. 71, November 5, 1881, pp. 526–27; F. Dittman, “Innovations in the Electric Energy System,” Icon 13 (2007), p. 63; G. Sanford, “Illuminating Systems: Edison and Electrical Incandescence,” OAH Magazine of History 4 (1989), no. 2, pp. 16–19.
4. J. E. Brittain, “The International Diffusion of Electrical Power Technology, 1870–1920,” Journal of Economic History 34 (1974), no. 1, pp. 108–21; S. P. Thompson, Dynamo-Electric Machinery: A Manual for Students of Electrotechnics, 3rd ed. (London: E. & F. N. Spon, 1888), pp. 140–41; H.E.H. Clifford, “The Efficiency of Small Electro-Motors,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 22 (1886), May–June, pp. 493–97.
5. This section is based on Hallion, Taking Flight, pp. 86–87; G. De Syon, “Toys or Tools? The Riddle of French Army Airships, 1884–1914,” Paper 22, presented to the 8th International Airship Convention, Bedford, U.K., 2010, pp. 1–9; C. Renard, “The First Flight of La France,” The Airship 2 (1936), no. 8, pp. 63–65; Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 15; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 2–3. The quotes regarding average speed and the new standard are taken from the Chairman’s Address, printed in The Journal of the Society of Arts 33 (1884), no. 1670, November 21, p. 16. The Eiffel Tower data come from Chanute, Aerial Navigation, p. 6.
5. The System
1. Letter, printed in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 164.
2. Quoted in Meyer, Count Zeppelin, p. 48. A slightly different version can be found in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 199–200.
3. D. Clerk, “The Internal-Combustion Engine,” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 65 (1916), no. 3341, December 1, 1916, pp. 43–44.
4. The material regarding Daimler and Maybach’s early years is based on a variety of online resources (gottliebdaimler.com, for instance), but see also L. Bryant, “The Silent Otto,” Technology and Culture 7 (1966), no. 2, pp. 184–200; G. Goldbeck, “Entwicklungsstufen des Verbrennungsmotors,” Motortechnische Zeitschrift 23 (1962), pp. 76–80; D. Beasley, Who Really Invented the Automobile? Skulduggery at the Crossroads (Simcoe, Ont.: Davus Publishing, 1997), pp. 113–14. On Woelfert, see Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 3.
5. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 16.
6. See the diagram in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 16.
7. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 17, 21.
8. Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 168.
9. See Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 21; Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 170. As late as 1908, Zeppelin still seemed to believe otherwise.
10. Letter to Schlieffen, printed in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 161–62; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 17; Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 16.
11. Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 16–17. On the choice of name, see J. Duggan and H. C. Meyer, Airships in International Affairs, 1890–1940 (London: Palgrave, 2001), p. 23.
12. Quoted in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 19. Tschudi’s warning about the PAB was recalled by Zeppelin in his diary entry of February 16, 1894; see Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 188–89.
13. Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 174–75.
14. Quoted in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 175.
15. On the high ranking of the quality of Württemberg’s scientific education, see “Science Notes,” Scientific American, January 11, 1902, p. 19.
16. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 19.
17. On aluminum, see S. Dooley, “The Development of Material-Adapted Structural Form,” Ph.D. diss., École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (2004), Appendix: “Aluminum, Plywood, and Rigid Airships,” esp. pp. 151–80.
18. On Bach and Kober, see Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 19; for Zeppelin’s letter to Kober, see Meyer, Count von Zeppelin, pp. 43–44.
19. Quoted in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 19.
20. Letter from Zeppelin to General Bronsart von Schellendorf, January 30, 1894, printed in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 187.
21. On car production, see Beasley, Who Really Invented the Automobile?, p. 139.
22. It was not likely Daimler himself, who was suffering from a serious heart condition at the time. He would be away for much of the following year. On Daimler’s movements, see daimler.com/company/tradition/founders-pioneers/gottlieb-daimler.html.
23. See, for example, his 1893 description in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 20; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 16.
24. Quoted in Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 17.
25. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 20; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 15–16.
26. Quoted in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 184.
27. Letter of November 13, 1893, in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 185–86.
28. See, for instance, his letters to General Oskar von Lindequist, December 29, 1893, and Schellendorf, the minister of war, January 30, 1894, in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 186–87.
29. Diary, February 16, 1894, in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 188–89.
6. The Pivot
1. Much of the Schwarz material is based on Douglas Robinson’s detailed and invaluable review of Cvi Rotem’s limited-edition David Schwarz: Tragödie des Erfinders: Zur Geschichte des Luftschiffes, which appeared in Buoyant Flight 32 (1984), no. 1, pp. 2–8.
2. The names of the committee members are listed in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 20. Biographical information has been accumulated from various online sources, including the relevant Wikipedia entries.
3. H. Müller-Breslau, “Zur Geschichte des Zeppelin-Luftschiffes,” in Verhandlung zur Beförderung des Gewerbfleisses, January 1914, p. 35, quoted in Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 19.
4. Zeppelin’s letter, dated May 1894, is reproduced in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 21.
5. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 21.
6. Meyer, Count Zeppelin, pp. 45–46; marginalia quoted in Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 19; Nitske, The Zeppelin Story, p. 53.
7. Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 193.
8. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 20–21.
9. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 22.
10. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 22.
11. Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 195.
12. Printed in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 197. On Gross, see B. Menne (trans. G. H. Smith), Blood and Steel: The Rise of the House of Krupp (New York: Lee Furman, 1938), pp. 83–84.
13. Letter to the king of Württemberg, no date, printed in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 198–99. By the end of August, Zeppelin was so certain of the merits of his sky train that he patented his concept of a “steerable air locomotive with several supporting bodies arranged in succession.” See Patent No. 98580, August 31, 1895, printed in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 21.
14. Letter to the king of Württemberg, no date, printed in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 198–99.
15. Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 201; Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 22–23.
16. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 23.
17. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 24.
18. Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 204–9; Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 24. On the Association of German Engineers, see K. Gispen, “Engineers in Wilhelmian Germany: Professionalization, Deprofessionalization, and the Development of Nonacademic Technical Education,” in German Professions, 1800–1950, ed. G. Cocks and K. H. Jarausch (New York; Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 104–22.
19. H.-C. Gunga, Nathan Luntz: His Life and Work in the Fields of High-Altitude Physiology and Aviation Medicine (Academic Press; New York, 2008), pp. 162–63; Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 24.
20. R. Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener: Luftfahrtpionier und Friedenspolitiker: Vom Kaiserreich Bis in Die Bundesrepublik (Konstanz, Germany: F. Stadler, 1981), p. 92. Gross’s accusation seems to have been based on the count’s recent change in plans from using hollow tubes—which were dangerously prone to bending under stress—for the girders to a lattice design, in which two horizontal beams are strengthened by means of thin, diagonal metal strips laced in an X pattern. It turned out that the latticed version had first been proposed by Berg’s people. Eckener mentions the accusation, first raised by Melanie (Schwarz’s redoubtable widow), very generally in Count Zeppelin, p. 211, while Robinson is more specific in his review of David Schwarz, pp. 7–8. On the design change, see Eckener, Count Zeppelin, p. 214; Dooley, “The Development of Material-Adapted Structural Form,” p. A.195. On the duel, see Lehmann, Zeppelin, pp. 129–30; Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 25–26.
21. Figures vary depending on the source. See Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 25–26 (including a partial list of shareholders); Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 23.
22. Quoted in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 26.
23. Lehmann, Zeppelin, p. 119; Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 28–29.
24. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 28; P. W. Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, 1893–1940 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), p. 32; Lehmann, Zeppelin, pp. 119–20. A detailed character description is provided in Italiaander, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, pp. 74–76. On the missing finger, see G. W. Price, “How It Feels to Fall into a Forest,” Literary Digest, August 6, 1910, p. 218.
25. E. L. Kuhn, “Zeppelin und die Folgen: Die Industrialisierung der Stadt Friedrichshafen,” undated presentation, Henry Cord Meyer Papers, Box 3, Folder 2, pp. 2, 6–9.
26. Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 25–27; “Leona Dare’s Trapeze” (June 9, 1879), “The Romance in a Trapeze Performer’s Life” (November 26, 1880), and her obituary (May 25, 1922), The New York Times.
7. A Wonderfully Ingenious Toy
1. P. P. Wegener, What Makes Airplanes Fly? History, Science, and Applications of Aerodynamics (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1991), pp. 124–25; Hallion, Taking Flight, pp. 27–28; J. D. Anderson, Jr., The Airplane: A History of Its Technology (Reston, Va.: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2002), p. 10.
2. Quoted in A. F. Zahm, Aerial Navigation: A Popular Treatise on the Growth of Air Craft and on Aeronautical Meteorology (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1911), pp. 17–18.
3. Anderson, The Airplane, pp. 4–5.
4. On Cayley’s early experiments, see J.A.D. Ackroyd, “Sir George Cayley: The Invention of the Aeroplane near Scarborough at the Time of Trafalgar,” Journal of Aerospace History 1 (2011), p. 149; C. H. Gibbs-Smith, The Invention of the Aeroplane, 1799–1909 (New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1966), pp. 5–8; Hallion, Taking Flight, p. 110.
5. Stokes, “Power for Flight in the Victorian Era,” p. 10; Ackroyd, “Sir George Cayley,” p. 156.
6. See G. Cayley, “On Aerial Navigation,” parts 1–3, 1809–1810, reprinted in The Wind and Beyond: A Documentary Journey into the History of Aerodynamics in America, ed. J. R. Hansen, D. B. Taylor, J. Kinney, and J. L. Lee (Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2003), Part I: The Ascent of the Airplane, pp. 34–56.
7. Gibbs-Smith, The Invention of the Aeroplane, pp. 8–9.
8. F. Wenham, “On Aerial Locomotion” (1866), “Report on the First Wind Tunnel” (1871), and “Minutes of Aeronautical Society” (1872), reprinted in Hansen et al. (eds.), Wind and Beyond, part 1, pp. 58–88.
9. Anderson, The Airplane, pp. 45–51. See also aerosociety.com/News/Insight-Blog/3949/The-Royal-Aeronautical-Society-Part-1-The-early-years.
10. H. S. Maxim, Artificial and Natural Flight (London: Whittaker and Co., 1908), p. 31.
11. H. S. Maxim, My Life (London: Methuen & Co., 1915), p. 294.
12. Anderson, The Airplane, pp. 52–57; Gibbs-Smith is particularly harsh. See Gibbs-Smith, The Invention of the Aeroplane, p. 21.
13. Letter of December 8, 1896, quoted in Hallion, Taking Flight, p. 167.
14. “Airship or Aeroplane—Which,” Scientific American, December 9, 1899, p. 370.
15. Letter, W. Wright to the Smithsonian Institution, May 30, 1899, reprinted in Hansen et al. (eds.), Wind and Beyond, part 1, pp. 188–89.
8. The Folly
1. On the office, see Lehmann, Zeppelin, p. 119.
2. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 27.
3. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 23; Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 30.
4. For th
e list of names, see Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 34.
5. E. Wolf, “The First Flight of Count Zeppelin’s Air Ship,” McClure’s Magazine, November 1900, pp. 8–9.
6. On the hangar, see Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, p. 30; Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 28–30. Scientific American had a detailed, early report on the hangar, though much of the information is inaccurate. See “Count von Zeppelin’s Dirigible Airship,” Scientific American, November 11, 1899.
7. Burr is usually cited in authoritative sources as being a member of the crew, including Lehmann, Zeppelin, p. 121. Robinson seems to be unique in omitting Burr and replacing him with a mechanic named Eisele. See Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 25.
8. For LZ-1’s technical specifications and its flights, see Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 23–26; Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 28–33; L. Dürr (trans. A. Reid), 25 Years of Zeppelin Airship Construction (1924; repr. Lulu Publishing, 2013), pp. 25–27. Depending on which source one consults, there are different numbers given for the engine horsepower; they range from 14 to 16. H.W.L. Moedebeck, the most authoritative source, refers to “a H.P. Daimler motor giving 14.7 H.P. at 680 revolutions.” H.W.L. Moedebeck (trans. W. M. Varley), Pocket-Book of Aeronautics (London: Whittaker & Co., 1907), p. 332. Eugen Wolf’s detailed firsthand account is a crucial resource. Wolf, “The First Flight of Count Zeppelin’s Air Ship,” pp. 3–11.
9. On Kübler, see Lehmann, Zeppelin, pp. 117–18.
10. On Gemmingen, see D. Topping, When Giants Roamed the Sky: Karl Arnstein and the Rise of Airships from Zeppelin to Goodyear, ed. E. Brothers (Akron, Oh.: University of Akron Press, 2001), pp. 46–47.
11. On the volunteers, see Wolf, “The First Flight,” p. 9.
12. Quoted in Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 35–37.
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