Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: COUNT ZEPPELIN 1838-1917] Zeppelin The Story of a Great Achievement For the great vision and unfaltering devotion to an idea that gave the rigid airship to the world, this compilation is my humble tribute to the memory of Count Zeppelin. [Signature: Harry Vissering] Chicago, August, 1922 Copyright 1922 by Harry Vissering All rights reserved including that of translation into foreign languages. [Illustration: “_The forces of nature cannot be eliminated but they may be balanced one against the other._” _Count Zeppelin, Friedrichshafen, May 1914._] “The savage can fasten only a dozen pounds on his back and swim the river. When he makes an axe, fells a tree, and builds a raft, he can carry many times a dozen pounds. As soon as he learns to rip logs into boards and build a boat, he multiplies his power a hundredfold; and when to this he adds modern sciences he can produce the monster steel leviathans that defy wind, storm and distance, and bear to the uttermost parts of the earth burdens a millionfold greater than the savage could carry across the narrow river.” —_Horace Mann_ FOREWORD “Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done most for civilization.” —_Macaulay._ The economic value of the fast transportation of passengers, mail and express matter has been well proven. The existing high speed railway trains and ocean liners are the result of the ever increasing demand for rapid communication both on land and water. Saving in time is the great essential. The maximum surface speed has apparently been attained. The railways and steamships of today, while indeed fast, have reached their economical limit of speed and it is not to be expected that they will be able, because of the enormous additional cost of operation involved, to attain much greater speeds. The large Zeppelin Airship supplies the demand for a much faster, more luxurious, more comfortable and more safe long distance transportation. It is not restricted by the geographical limitations of the railway and the steamship. _A Zeppelin can go anywhere_, in fact the cruising radius of a Zeppelin is only limited by the size of the ship and the amount of fuel it can carry.