construction of his first
airship. The intervening years had been spent in constructing and
testing models, in abstruse calculations of the resistance of the
air, the lifting power of hydrogen, the comparative rigidity and
weight of different woods and various metals, the power and weight
of the different makes of motors. In these studies he spent both his
time and his money lavishly, with the result that when he had built
a model on the lines of which he was willing to risk the
construction of an airship of operative size, his private fortune
was gone. It is the common lot of inventors. For a time the Count
suffered all the mortification and ignominy which the beggar, even
in a most worthy cause, must always experience. Hat in hand he
approached every possible patron with his story of certain success
if only supplied with funds with which to complete his ship. A
stock company with a capital of $225,000 of which he contributed one
half, soon found its resources exhausted and retired from the
speculation. Appeals to the Emperor met with only cold indifference.
An American millionaire newspaper owner, resident in Europe, sent
contemptuous word by his secretary that he "had no time to bother
with crazy inventors." That was indeed the attitude of the business
classes at the moment when the inventors of dirigibles were on the
very point of conquering the obstacles in the way of making the
navigation of air a practical art. A governmental commission at
Berlin rejected with contempt the plans which Zeppelin presented in
his appeal for support. Members of that commission were forced to an
about-face later and became some of the inventor's sturdiest
champions. But in his darkest hour the government failed him, and
the one friendly hand stretched out in aid was that of the German
Engineers' Society which, somewhat doubtfully, advanced some funds
to keep the work in operation.

[Illustration: (C) U. & U.

_A British "Blimp"._]

With this the construction of the first Zeppelin craft was begun.
Though there had been built up to the opening of the war twenty-five
"Zeps"--nobody knows how many since--the fundamental type was not
materially altered in the later ones, and a description of the first
will stand for all. In connection with this description may be noted
the criticisms of experts some of which proved only too well
founded.

The first Zeppelin was polygonal, 450 feet long, 78 broad, and 66
feet high. This colossal bul