isted him financially with his models, now concluded
that their aid had been misplaced.

The inventor, though disappointed, was by no means cast down. He clung
tenaciously to his pet scheme and to such effect that in 1896 a German
Engineering Society advanced him some funds to continue his researches.
This support sufficed to keep things going for another two years,
during which time a full-sized vessel was built. The grand idea began
to crystallise rapidly, with the result that when a public company was
formed in 1898, sufficient funds were rendered available to enable the
first craft to be constructed. It aroused considerable attention, as
well it might, seeing that it eclipsed anything which had previously
been attempted in connection with dirigibles. It was no less than 420
feet in length, by 38 feet in diameter, and was fitted with two cars,
each of which carried a sixteen horse-power motor driving independent
propellers rigidly attached to the body of the vessel. The propellers
were both vertical and horizontal, for the purpose of driving the ship
in the two planes--vertical and horizontal respectively.

The vessel was of great scientific interest, owing to the ingenuity of
its design and construction. The metallic skeleton was built up from
aluminium and over this was stretched the fabric of the envelope,
care being observed to reduce skin friction, as well as to achieve
impermeability. But it was the internal arrangement of the gas-lifting
balloons which provoked the greatest concern. The hull was divided
into compartments, each complete in itself, and each containing a small
balloon inflated with hydrogen. It was sub-division as practised in
connection with vessels ploughing the water applied to aerial craft, the
purpose being somewhat the same. As a ship of the seas will keep afloat
so long as a certain number of its subdivisions remain watertight,
so would the Zeppelin keep aloft if a certain number of the gas
compartments retained their charges of hydrogen. There were no fewer
than seventeen of these gas-balloons arranged in a single line within
the envelope. Beneath the hull and extending the full length of
the latter was a passage which not only served as a corridor for
communication between the cars, but also to receive a weight attached
to a cable worked by a winch. By the movement of this weight the bow or
stem of the vessel could be tilted to assist ascent and descent.

The construction of the vessel