Several trials of this leviathan were made preliminary to her official government test which, if satisfactory, assured her purchase by the German government for $500,000. At the builder’s suggestion this test should include a voyage of 24 hours duration, a safe descent on land or water, an ascent to 4,000 feet, and the fulfillment of various secret requirements. In the autumn of 1907 a successful voyage of eight hours was easily accomplished. In the early part of the next summer, 1908, a series of voyages were made which aroused intense interest throughout the civilized world. On June 13th the great ship, starting from her harbor at Friedrichshafen, sailed over the Alps to Lucerne, steering in among the mountains; here buffeted by eddies, and cross currents, there stemming such stiff head winds that her shadow could hardly creep forward over the ground, again driving through a dark lowering hailstorm which pelted with ominous thunder on her resounding hull; but at length reaching Lucerne safely, then returning in triumph to her harbor at Friedrichshafen. For twelve hours the stanch vessel endured the elements, by no means hospitable, and in that period voyaged 270 miles at an average speed of 22 miles an hour. It was a record journey and a triumph in the art. The following picturesque account of a flight in Count von Zeppelin’s gigantic air ship, written by Emil Sandt, appeared in the _Scientific American Supplement_ of August 15, 1908: “Early in the morning Professor Hergesell, Freiherr von Bassus, Dr. Stalberg, Herr Uhland, and myself set out in Count Zeppelin’s launch for the shed in which the great air ship is housed. When we arrived everything was in readiness for us. Count Zeppelin is proud of the fact that his colossal craft can be drawn in and out of the shed with very little help. In seven minutes the huge gas bag had emerged, and a few minutes later we were floating up to the sky. I took my station in the central car or cabin, a comfortable room flooded with the yellow light that filters through the translucent balloon fabric of which the walls, the floor and the ceiling are constituted. Comfortable seats suspended from fine chains provide a seating capacity for a dozen passengers. “For a great portion of their length the walls are provided with celluloid panes. The floor is also transparent wherever it is not used as a footway. Seated comfortably in the central car, I could look down through my knees and see the green earth, water, people, cities and castles far below. I could also see birds circling around and fluttering anxiously, evidently frightened by the strange giant of the air.