ore
reaching her shed, however, she collided with a pile--an accident in
no way attributable to her design--and seriously bent her frame.

The story told thus baldly does not sound like a record of glorious
success. Nevertheless not Count Zeppelin alone but all Germany was
wild with jubilation. _Zeppelin I._ had demonstrated a principle;
all that remained was to develop and apply this principle and
Germany would have a fleet of aerial dreadnoughts that would force
any hostile nation to subjection. There was little or no discussion
of the application of the principle to the ends of peace. It was as
an engine of war alone that the airship appealed to the popular
fancy.

But at the time that fancy proved fickle. With a few repairs the
airship was brought out for another test. In the air it did all that
was asked for it, but it came to earth--or rather to the surface of
the lake--with a shock that put it out of commission. When Count
Zeppelin's company estimated the cost of further repairs it gave a
sigh and abandoned the wreck. Thereupon the pertinacious inventor
laid aside his tools, got into his old uniform, and went out again
on the dreary task of begging for further funds.

It was two years before he could take up again the work of
construction. He lectured, wrote magazine articles, begged, cajoled,
and pleaded for money. At last he made an impression upon the
Emperor who, indeed, with a keen eye for all that makes for military
advantage, should have given heed to his efforts long before. Merely
a letter of approval from the all-powerful Kaiser was needed to turn
the scale and in 1902 this was forthcoming. The factories of the
empire agreed to furnish materials at cost price, and sufficient
money was soon forthcoming to build a second ship. This ship took
more than two years to build, was tested in January, 1906, made a
creditable flight, and was dashed to pieces by a gale the same
night!

The wearisome work of begging began again. But this time the
Kaiser's aid was even more effectively given and in nine months
_Zeppelin III._ was in the air. More powerful than its predecessors
it met with a greater measure of success. On one of its trials a
propeller blade flew off and penetrated the envelope, but the ship
returned to earth in safety. In October, 1906, the Minister of War
reported that the airship was extremely stable, responded readily to
her helm, had carried eleven persons sixty-seven miles in two hours
and