Poem ~ Super Zeppelins - Sunday, 13 February - Monday, 14 February 1916

Impression sketch of Engine Factory of Maybach - by Jamie. From an original image that can be seen at: <http://www.worldskyrace.com/the_maybach_motors.htm
[Accessed: 13 February 2016]

For details of original patent application in methods of metallic plating or coating see: http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US1128059

From sources of a Swiss paper

Der Bund, came the information

Of a new super type of Zeppelin.

The Berne city of Switzerland's

Union paper, told developments

Taking place on Lake Constance.

There, German waters at the foot

Of the Alps, offered wide spaces

To trial out Zeppelin machines.

On north shore of a Swiss border,
was situated the industrial city 
Of Friedrichshafen, since 1908.

Here the Maybach engine factory,

As part of the Zeppelin industry,

Tested all motors up to 48 hours.

For lengthy times during all tests,

The drone of noise carried across

Lake Constance without any stop.

From earliest designs of air ships

The Zeppelin had been elongated -

Described as forming a fish shape.

Changes to the gondolas included

making them independent, save

For any corridor within the balloon.

Both crew cars were then built with 

Armour plating; to be equipped by 

Six machine and quick fire gunnery.

While car platforms were hidden,
Another device introduced, would 
Pace out the drops of ariel bombs.

The stronger reinforced motors
made rudder gear to be a compact

Size; all making for a greater noise.

Trial flights of these air machines

Would show off manoeuvrability

And sharp improvements in power.

In addition, inventor Count Friedrich

Zeppelin, also gained M. Schoops

Patent, for his Swiss metallic plating.

A process able to give Zeppelins

A metallic sheen, to cover a fifth

Of the great airship's body length.

The likely suggestion to provide

Protection - while yet another

Invention was clever camouflage.

To attempt their invisibility, such
Ships emitted volumes of vapours,

To create billowing artificial clouds.

A technique ideally relying on other

Clouds - while on any clear day
A ship might look like a sore thumb.

by Jamie Mann.

Beaumont, A.,1916. New Arial Monsters. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 12 February 1916. P.9. Col.5. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12149082/Daily-Telegraph-February-12-1916.html [Accessed: 13 February 2016].

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12149082/Daily-Telegraph-February-12-1916.html

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Poem ~ Zeppelins Shot and Spotted - Sunday, 27 September 1914

Into the renamed city of Russian Petrograd,

Two railway trucks conveyed remains

Of a Zeppelin airship - shot down, as reported,

From a great height by Russian artillery.

The largest part of the inflated body destroyed,

By the exploding gas  - the underbelly

Of an engine car, with four propellers, survived,

The fittings intact and in good repair.

This Eastern front has reported the destruction,

So far, of two German Zeppelins.

But if this was one of them, it was not clarified.

Perhaps this was an additional craft,

Lost to the aerial fleet that Germany intended

To play a big part in the war.

This Zeppelin, if shot down in dead of night,

Will be the third airship,

Of the same type, the Russians have gained.

As other two captures,

Were reported as happening in broad daylight.

On the coast of Belgium, at Ostend, Saturday,

Occurred a Zeppelin raid setting out to destroy

Ammunition trains, which the enemy believed

To be halted at the station. In fact the trains

Had been there, but had left on a previous day.

The belief is that the enemy had gained

Information of ammunition trains from spies.

From Copenhagen, on Friday, North East

Of Kattegat, at Thunoe - a Zeppelin flight,

Had been seen moving slowly south east,

To vanish towards the strait of the Little Belt.

Reports from Bordeaux, on Friday evening,

Are received in a dispatch, that Switzerland

At Basle, bore witness of a dark, moving

Zeppelin - in a trial flight, it had proceeded

Above Lake Constance - the suggestion is

That this test flight was not very successful.

As to how or why, the paper gives no clue...

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. War on Zeppelins - Another Capture Reported. The Daily Telegraph - Special War Edition, [online] 27 Sept. p.2. Col.1. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11121585/Daily-Telegraph-September-27-1914.html [Accessed: 27th September 2014].

Anon.,1914. Airship at Ostend - Object of the Attack. The Daily Telegraph - Special War Edition, [online] 27 Sept. p.2. Col.1. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11121585/Daily-Telegraph-September-27-1914.html [Accessed: 27th September 2014].

Anon.,1914. Flight near the Baltic. The Daily Telegraph - Special War Edition, [online] 27 Sept. p.2. Col.1. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11121585/Daily-Telegraph-September-27-1914.html [Accessed: 27th September 2014].

Anon.,1914. A New Zeppelin. The Daily Telegraph - Special War Edition, [online] 27 Sept. p.2. Col.1. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11121585/Daily-Telegraph-September-27-1914.html [Accessed: 27th September 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 27 September 2014). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11121585/Daily-Telegraph-September-27-1914.html

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