e created by their rapid revolution.
One great military advantage of the Parseval was that she could be
quickly deflated in the presence of danger at her moorings, and
wholly knocked down and packed in small compass for shipment by rail
in case of need. To neither of these models did there ever come such
a succession of disasters as befell the earlier Zeppelins. It is
fair to say however that prior to the war not many of them had been
built, and that both their builders and navigators had opportunity
to learn from Count von Zeppelin's errors.

Among the chief German rivals to the Zeppelin is the Schutte-Lanz,
of the rigid type, broader but not so long as the Zeppelin, framed
of wood bound with wire and planned to carry a load of five or six
tons, or as many as thirty passengers. No. I of this type met its
fate as did so many Zeppelins by encountering a storm while
improperly moored. Called to earth to replenish its supply of gas it
was moored to an anchor sunk six feet in the ground, and as an
additional precaution three hundred soldiers were called from a
neighbouring barracks to handle it. It seems to have been one of the
advantages of Germany as a place in which to manoeuvre dirigibles,
that, even in time of peace, there were always several hundred
soldiers available wherever a ship might land. But this force was
inadequate. A violent gust tore the ship from their hands. One poor
fellow instinctively clung to his rope until one thousand feet in
the air when he let go. The ship itself hovered over the town for an
hour or more, then descended and was dashed to pieces against trees
and stone walls.

The danger which was always attached to the landing of airships has
led some to suggest that they should never be brought to earth, but
moored in mid-air as large ships anchor in midstream. It is
suggested that tall towers be built to the top of which the ship be
attached by a cable, so arranged that she will always float to the
leeward of the tower. The passengers would be landed by gangplanks,
and taken up and down the towers in elevators. Kipling suggests this
expedient in his prophetic sketch _With the Night Mail_. The airship
would only return to earth--as a ship goes into dry dock--when in
need of repairs.

A curious mishap that threatened for a time to wreck the peace of
the world, occurred in April, 1913, when a German Zeppelin was
forced out of its course and over French territory. The right of
alien machines t