The Zeppelin Organization at the Time of Its Greatest Activity 1918-1919
The Zeppelin Endowment for the Propagation of Air Navigation
(Zeppelinstiftung zur Foerderung der Luftfahrt) which Count Zeppelin
founded with the subscription fund of 6,000,000 marks presented to him
by the German people in 1908, is administered by a Board of Directors,
of which Baron Max Freiherr von Gemmingen, Zeppelin's nephew, who worked
with him from the start, is Chairman. The other Directors are Baron von
Bassus and Dr. Hugo Eckener.
The Zeppelin Endowment owns Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin (Zeppelin Airship
Building Co.), the construction company organized in 1908 and controls
the "DELAG" organized, as stated before, in 1910 for the operation of
commercial Zeppelins. Interested in the "DELAG" are a number of
financiers, though with all the others, it was under the personal
supervision of Count Zeppelin, and after him the Directorate of the
Zeppelin Endowment.
At the time of the Armistice the construction and operating companies
employed 1,600 persons on their executive and engineering staffs and
12,000 workmen.
Many subsidiary companies were organized and operated, specializing in
the various branches of Zeppelin work, experimenting and producing.
Many Subsidiary Companies
[PLATE 29: Zeppelin Village (Zeppelindorf), 1916.
Constructed by the Zeppelin Airship Building Company for its
employees and their families.
A Typical Double House.
A Typical Single House.]
These subsidiary companies are also controlled by the Directorate. They
were not permitted to disintegrate during the difficult period following
the war, but instead, have kept their personnel and facilities intact
and are ready to continue the work which was interrupted by the terms of
the treaty. They produce respectively motors, gas bags, propellers,
gears, sheds and, in fact, everything pertaining to aerial navigation
including airplanes, flying boats and parts.
The Construction Plants
The great construction plants are organized on the same principles as
ship yards. Over them all is the General Director, Mr. Alfred Colsman,
and Chief Engineer, Dr. Ing. Ludwig Duerr, the latter having been with
Count Zeppelin since the first airship was started and to whom much of
the credit must be given for the success attained.
There are various departments including the planning and supervising
divisions, two designing divisions (one for scientific and general
design, the other for workship and drawings), the manufacturing and
erecting divisions, calculating and accounting, testing and controlling,
and general maintenance divisions. The research department is a separate
organization.
The Airship Factories
In the airship factories the framework is made and erected. The envelope
is prepared, passenger and engine gondolas completed and assembled along
with other apparatus and instruments. The power plant is built,
excepting the motors and parts of the gear work. Research work along the
lines of airship development is conducted there.
The original plant built at Friedrichshafen in 1910 included a double
shed, workshops, offices and laboratory buildings. The shed would not
accommodate ships of greater diameter than 52-1/2feet (16 meters), so in
1914 new workshops and another shed was built, to be followed the next
year by a still larger shed.
[PLATE 30: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Schwaben", 1912.
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Schwaben", 1910.
Count Zeppelin and Doctor Eckener in the pilot car.]
During 1915 and 1916 better workshops (Plate 16), offices and a larger
laboratory, together with the largest wind tunnel on earth were
completed, along with a low pressure chamber for testing motors, a new
development as unique as it was important to the automotive science.
The Hydrogen Plant
The original hydrogen plant was enlarged to a capacity output of 353,100
cubic feet (10,000 cubic meters) daily, with storage facilities for
2,118,600 cubic feet (60,000 cubic meters). Since the war, the storage
facilities have been reduced to 706,200 cubic feet (20,000 cubic meters)
by order of the Allied Commission.
Powerful Radio Station
The Zeppelin wireless plant, started in 1910, has continued to develop
with the science of radio and is now able to communicate with the United
States.
The duralumin factory is capable of meeting all Zeppelin requirements.
The Great Zeppelin Hangars
The original shed, built in 1908-09 and first used in 1910, is now the
ring building factory, where the great transverse frames for the
Zeppelins are made. It is 603-1/2 feet (184 meters) long, 150.8 feet (46
meters) wide and stands 65.6 feet (20 meters) high--huge dimensions in
the early days but utterly dwarfed by the great sheds which have since
appeared alongside. There are double doors at each end, one set operated
on the turning, the other on the sliding principle. They are opened and
closed by electricity in a few minutes.
In this shed twenty-eight Zeppelins were assembled, the last being LZ-39
after which it was devoted to the transverse ring frames.
[PLATE 31: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Victoria Louise",
1912.
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Victoria Louise", 1912.]
Twenty Zeppelins were built in the new shed, number one (Plate 16),
which is 629.8 feet (192 meters) long, 129.23 feet (39.4 meters) wide
and 91.8 feet (28 meters) high. Its double sliding doors are
electrically operated.
Six of the larger Zeppelins were either built or reconstructed in
another new shed, number two, erected to accommodate ships of 1,942,050
cubic feet (55,000 cubic meters) and more. It is 787.2 feet (240 meters)
long, 150.8 feet (46 meters) wide and 114.8 feet (35 meters) high. Its
sliding doors can be opened or closed within fifteen minutes. Both of
the large sheds have long docking rails at each end which enables the
Zeppelins to leave or return to shelter within a few minutes.
Another shed near the works at Loewental was turned over to Zeppelin by
the Government. The Navy Zeppelin L-11 was built there in 1915. The last
one was the navy ship L-72 which was completed as the armistice was
signed. It was not inflated for delivery; and, therefore, remained the
property of the Zeppelin Company.
In the spring of 1919 the L-72 was outfitted for a demonstration flight
from Berlin to the United States and return; but it was prevented by the
Allied Commissions which ordered it to be kept in the shed until
delivered to France. All the Zeppelins assembled at Loewental were
fabricated at the main plant and taken there only for final assembling
of the parts.
The Potsdam Plant
[PLATE 32: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Victoria Louise".
The ship's 1000th trip, totaling 40,000 miles in 1292 hours and
during which 22,039 passengers were carried without injury of
any kind.
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Victoria Louise".
Count Zeppelin and Doctor Eckener beneath the ship.]
The Zeppelin plant at Potsdam was erected in 1912 as an airship harbor
and the following winter became one of the main construction centers
with shed, workshops, and other necessary equipment. Here the passenger
Zeppelin "=Sachsen=" was lengthened early in 1914. The last of the sixteen
ships built there was the army Zeppelin LZ-81 late in 1916, after
which, because the shed was too small for the larger ships, it was used
for building giant seaplanes. Later on it was converted into a special
repair factory of all the airship motors. The airship personnel was
transferred to the Staaken plant near Berlin.
The Colossal Staaken Plant
The Zeppelin-Staaken plant (Plate 17), located in the outskirts of
Berlin is considered the most modern airship factory in the world.
Into it were put all the knowledge and experience of ten years of
practical airship production. There were at one time two large sheds 820
feet (250 meters) long, 150.8 feet (46 meters) wide and 114.8 feet (35
meters) high, with a ring building shed between them, great workshops,
research laboratories, administration building, hydrogen plant and all
accessories.
The latest and most efficient machinery and tools then devised were
provided. A large airdrome was constructed, as it was planned to make
Staaken the post-war center of Zeppelin airship activity.
Here it was planned to locate both stationary and rotary sheds, the
latter turning like a locomotive turn-table, making it possible to point
their entrances in any direction the prevailing wind might dictate, to
insure safe launching or landing of the Zeppelins. Then there were to be
airplane factories on the same airdrome. It was at the Staaken plant
that the L-59 was fabricated for the record flight to German East Africa
and return. In all, twelve Zeppelins were built there.
The Duralumin Works
During the war two plants were put up in the vicinity of Friedrichshafen
for making duralumin materials such as angle bars, strips, all kinds of
girders, and other parts of the Zeppelin skeleton. They were operated
for the most part with female labor.
[PLATE 33: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Hansa", 1912.
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Sachsen", 1913.]
The Woodworking Factory
A woodworking factory (Holzindustrie G.M.B.H.-Meckenbeuren) also was
established near Friedrichshafen for the manufacture of propellers, etc.
It has recently been enlarged and is operating at full capacity
producing materials for buildings, dwellings, etc. During the war the
specially designed Zeppelin propellers were made at Goeppingen.
The Maybach Motor Works
One of the accessory companies founded by Zeppelin in 1909 was the
Maybach Motor Factory (Maybach-Motorenbau) (Plate 18), at
Friedrichshafen. It was enlarged considerably during the war, supplying
practically all the airship motors used. Today the Maybach works include
three large three story factory buildings, parts of which are devoted to
executive offices, two workshops of recent origin occupying two acres,
many engine testing stands, laboratory, and a power plant fully equipped
with the latest machinery. The entire plant is under the management of
Mr. Maybach, inventor of the only motor designed for airships alone. One
reason for the peculiar efficiency of the plant is the special workman's
training department which has received considerable attention from the
executives.
[PLATE 34: "DELAG"-Zeppelin Harbor at Frankfort a.M., 1912.
"DELAG"-Zeppelin Harbor at Baden-Baden, 1910.]
The first Maybach motors were produced in 1912 (Plate 19), and were 140
and 180 horsepower. They contributed largely to the success of the
commercial Zeppelin before the war. In 1915 a 240 horsepower motor was
built, and this was the principal motor used on the military and naval
Zeppelins. Maybach produced an entirely new motor in 1917. It supplied
from 260 to 320 horsepower and is noted as the first supercompression
motor. Quickly recognized as the best engine for airplanes, it became
the leading German aviation motor until late in 1918 when other motors
built on similar principles appeared and were found more adaptable to
the planes. Maybach, meanwhile, developed other types (Plate 20),
principally 160 and 260 horsepower units for heavier-than-air craft.
The following table illustrates the development in types and performance
of engines:
Performance of Engines--1892-1918
================================================================
| | | |Weight| Unit | Fuel |
| | |Revolutions| Kg. | Weight |Consumption |
Year | Motor | H. P.|per minute | |Kg./H. P.| Gr./hp-hr |
----------------------------------------------------------------|
1892 | Daimler | 11 | 440 | 500 | 45,5 | 500 |
1899 | Daimler | 15 | 680 | 385 | 25,7 | 400 |
1905 | Daimler | 90 | 1050 | 360 | 4,00 | ... |
1907 | Daimler | 100 | 1080 | 400 | 4,00 | 265-240 |
1909 | Daimler | 115 | 1100 | 420 | 3,65 | ... |
1910 | Daimler | 120 | 1100 | 450 | 3,75 | 225 |
1910 | Maybach | 145 | 1100 | 450 | 3,1 | 240 |
1913 | Maybach | 180 | 1200 | 462 | 2,56 | 225 |
1914 | Maybach | 210 | 1250 | 414 | 1,97 | 225 |
1915 | Maybach | 240 | 1400 | 365 | 1,52 | 200 |
1917 | Maybach | 260 | 1400 | 400 | 1,54 | 200 |
1918 | Maybach | 260 | 1400 | 390 | 1,50 | 200 |
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Employment and Training System
Apprentices and girls are given a thorough examination and test to
determine their fitness for the work, which requires the utmost
accuracy. Then they enter a twelve weeks probationary service. Their
apprenticeship lasts four years. All apprentices are given instruction
by engineers and foremen in physics, chemistry, knowledge of materials,
model making, foundry work, algebraic calculation methods, the handling
of graphics, curves, statistics, price calculation, machines and tools
and particularly the principles and functions of internal combustion
engines.
On January 1st, 1918, 1980 workmen were employed, 416 of them women.
There were 57 women on the executive and office staff of 217. On
November 1st, that year, 3300 workmen and 349 others were employed, 599
of them women.
[PLATE 35: "DELAG"-Zeppelin Harbor at Hamburg, 1912.
"DELAG"-Zeppelin Harbor at Leipzig, 1913.
"Sachsen" landing for first time after completion of harbor
June 1913.]
The Zeppelin-Maybach Gearless Car
In the fall of 1921 Maybach exhibited for the first time the 22-70
horsepower gearless motor car, designed to simplify operation. Only what
is termed the direct speed is used in driving; except for grades of more
than 10%, and for the starting on these grades, when apart from the rest
of the mechanism a single gear is used by pushing down a pedal. When it
is released, the direct grip is automatically restored without noise or
vibration. Backing is accomplished with the electric starting motor by
means of a pedal. Smaller cars of this type are now under construction.
New Methods of Gas Bag Fabrication
The early gas bags for the Zeppelins were made of rubberized cotton
fabric. This material was comparatively heavy and further, it allowed
the hydrogen gas to deteriorate during prolonged operations. Count
Zeppelin experimented with various materials, particularly goldbeater
skins, which are the big intestines of oxen and other cattle, treated
until they become like leather and then they are very thin, tough and so
durable that they wear much longer than fabric. Zeppelin learned that
goldbeater's skins held gas better, also, and unlike rubberized fabric,
practically eliminated the danger of electrical sparks due to friction
or tearing.
He organized the Gasbag Manufacturing Company (Ballon-Huellen G.M.B.H.)
at Tempelhof in 1912, to carry out this development and goldbeater's
skins were used exclusively, as the loss of two Zeppelins that year was
traced directly to the balloon fabric in the gas bags causing sparks
which exploded the hydrogen. The ships were the LZ-12 and the Schwaben,
the former exploding during inflation and the latter while moored at
Dusseldorf.
[PLATE 36: "DELAG"--Zeppelin Harbors at Liegnitz and Dresden,
1913-14.
"DELAG"--Zeppelin Harbor and Manufacturing Plant at Potsdam
(near Berlin), 1915.]
The goldbeater skins possessed certain disadvantages, however. For one
thing, they were difficult to handle because of their small size; so
they were shingled on to thin cotton fabric. Since 1917 silk has been
used, the combination when prepared being so light and thin as to be
transparent. In fact, the Zeppelins hulls are themselves nearly
transparent, the fabric envelope and gas bags being so thin that one can
make out figures silhouetted on the opposite side of the hull when it
faces the light.
The Tempelhof factory, with Mr. Trenkmann as Manager, now includes many
buildings and workshops, several put up recently for dyeing and treating
fabrics. During the war a thousand persons were employed. The gas bags
used in all the German airships were made there; and the factory working
with another firm under a patent license agreement, made a majority of
the German observation balloons.
The Maag-Zeppelin Gear Works
It was not long after the war started that Count Zeppelin had difficulty
in securing delivery of cog-wheels, etc. In 1915 he co-operated with Mr.
Maag, a Swiss engineer, in starting the Friedrichshafen Cog-wheel and
Gear Factory (Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen G.M.B.H.), another
subsidiary (Plate 18.). The plant is as modern as they could make it.
The buildings occupy three acres. They include office buildings,
workshops for hobbing, heat-treating, grinding and polishing cog-wheels
and the complete gear transmissions. Aluminum castings are obtained from
the foundry of the parent company, Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin.
The gear works is equipped throughout with automatic machines built on
the Maag patents. His cog-wheel involves a new principle, giving utmost
safety and freedom from wear and noise. Specially designed testing
machines are used, guaranteeing precision of the gear wheels.
[PLATE 37: "DELAG" Zeppelin Route Chart, 1912-13.]
During the war the company made all the gearing on the Zeppelins and
airplanes. The factory is now operating at full capacity, employing 500
men, making motor car gears, transmissions, etc. The manager is Dipl.
Ing. Count von Soden.
The Hangar Construction Company
Back in 1913 a subsidiary was founded, first as a consulting engineering
concern; but soon thereafter it became the Zeppelin Hangar Construction
Company (Zeppelin Hallenbau G.M.B.H.). Through long practical experience
it is prepared to build and equip complete airship harbors and dock
yards, prepare landing fields and airdromes. One of the principal
developments with which it has been accredited is the rotary shed,
single or double. It has erected special workshops, gas plants and all
the accessories of a modern flying terminal.
The company designed and constructed the two modern sheds at
Friedrichshafen, the entire Staaken plant, the "DELAG" airship harbors
and nearly all the other airports in Germany. Many hangars and workshops
in Germany today were put up by the company using specially patented
construction methods. In all some twenty-four complete airship harbors
have been built from start to finish by this organization, which is
under the management of Mr. Milatz and his staff of experts varying
between 20 and a hundred members.
Zeppelin Production of Airplanes
In 1916, the airship building personnel conducted experiments with
airplanes made of airship duralumin girders covered with fabric. The
object was to secure a plane which would meet the technical requirements
of aerial photography. Though their activities were devoted to the
airship building programme, the engineers managed to produce an
experimental machine of that type. On its first trials, it proved so
superior to existing types that the army urgently requested early
delivery of a number of machines. There was little time to do the work,
however, and at the end of the war only twenty had been completed. They
were destroyed, afterward, under the terms of the Versailles treaty.
[PLATE 38: "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Bodensee".]
There were other airplane enterprises organized by Count Zeppelin, which
remain today leaders in their respective fields. Zeppelin was the first
person to conceive of the giant all-metal flying boats (Plates 21 and
22), and all-metal airplanes.
The Zeppelin-Dornier Metal Monoplanes
He organized a small group within the parent company,
Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin, in 1912. It was the first concern exclusively
engaged in all-metal airplane construction. Today the great plant of
Dornier Metallbau G.M.B.H. at Seemoos, near Friedrichshafen is noted the
world over for its remarkable development in heavier-than-air craft,
which are named Dornier, after the manager and chief engineer. From the
first Count Zeppelin placed at the disposal of Claude Dornier ample
funds with which he was able to follow utterly new and original methods
in developing all-metal planes on a strictly scientific basis.
It had never been done before. The plant in six years developed from a
small experimental workshop to one of the largest in the world. At
Seemoos there are located a great hangar, office buildings, workshops,
turntables, slips and other facilities for landing and withdrawing the
huge Dornier flying boats. Another great factory was erected at Lindau
in 1918 but has not been used for reasons of economy.
[PLATE 39: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Nordstern", 1919.
A sister ship of the "Bodensee."
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Nordstern."
Interior view of the passenger cabin.]
As progress was made in designing, constructing and testing metal
planes, Dornier devoted the work practically toward perfection of
internally braced monoplanes. The monoplane principle was maintained
from the beginning. Today it is recognized generally as the most
desirable type. New designs, methods of handling metal, experiments with
various kinds of construction, newly invented machine tools,
experimental planes and models, each an advance in efficiency,
invariably something newly discovered in the infant science of
aerodynamics--these were the activities of Dornier and his staff in six
years.
The results were Dornier's all-metal planes, possessing from 55 to 2,400
horsepower. They had just started quantity production of big planes and
flying boats in the factories at Lindau and Seemoos when the German
revolution halted all activities. Since then, though hampered by the
treaty stipulations, the company has developed a series of commercial
types unexcelled in construction, performance and safe operation. Since
the war both commercial land planes and flying boats powered with from
one to three engines have been produced.
Twenty-one Dornier Designs
During the war their products included pursuit planes, single motor
two-place fighters (Plate 23), two and three motored bombing planes and
four and multi-engined giant planes--all for over land flying. Seaplane
types included single engine two-place fighters, two and three motored
flying boats and four and multi-engine giant flying boats. More than one
hundred domestic patents were held and more than 250 filed in foreign
patent offices. Twenty-one different designs for experimental types had
been produced, seventeen of them worked out in as many machines which
were flown, and four Plates 24-25-26-27 made into models Plates
24-25-26-27. The following is a list of the experimental personnel year
by year:
1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920
Engineers 15 25 25 69 52 23
Workmen 30 250 300 547 207 80
[PLATE 40: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Bodensee." Landing
at Friedrichshafen September 1919.
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Bodensee." Floating in the
large shed at Friedrichshafen.]
Zeppelin Builds Giant Airplanes
But there was another angle to the Zeppelin airplane activities. Count
Zeppelin held the rank of General in the German Army. He had long been
in a position which kept him informed of the needs of the fighting
forces. For several months after the declaration of war he observed the
heavy tasks to which his airships were put and then undertook the
development of larger airplanes, far larger than any existing in the
world at the time.
He consulted the noted aviator Hellmuth Hirth, and together they
conferred with Professor Baumann of the technical university at
Stuttgart. Baumann was already noted for his work as an aeronautical
engineer. Within a few months they produced a multi-engined giant
bomber. It proved successful. To produce these machines in quantity the
Zeppelin works at Staaken were erected at the same time as the airship
building plant. The airplane factory at Staaken soon employed more than
a thousand men in turning out the giant night bombers, numbers of which
were flown in the raids over London and Paris in 1917 and 1918.
The Airplane Works at Staaken
The plant at Staaken was complete, including two great airplane
assembling sheds, workshops, offices, etc. It is now closed. Other
German firms have built similar bombing planes under the Zeppelin
patents. Twenty-six of them were built at Staaken, however.
They had a 137.76 foot (42 meters) wing span, carried 4.5 tons useful
load, could climb to a height of 14,760 feet (4,500 meters) with their
motors which aggregated 1,250 horsepower. Their average speed was 90
miles per hour (Plate 23).
[PLATE 41: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Nordstern."
Leaving Friedrichshafen for France. Note the progressive
increase in the size of the sheds.
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Bodensee."
Passengers enjoying an excursion over Berlin.]
Other machines were built, smaller, but of all-metal construction. After
the war "The Staaken Giant" (Plate 24) was put into commission. It, too,
was all-metal, carried four motors and was distinctly a commercial
plane. During many successful trials it carried eighteen passengers at a
speed of 145 miles an hour. Later on, a two-engine commercial land plane
was nearing completion when the Inter-allied Aeronautical Commission
ordered all work stopped, and the activities at Staaken ceased.
Social Welfare Institutions of the Zeppelin Organizations
One of the main requisites for success in any industry is the welfare of
the men and women employed; and the establishment of the great Zeppelin
organization created a community of employees in the small town on Lake
Constance which demanded increasing attention as the organization
expanded.
At first questions of industrial and social welfare were settled by a
special department within Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin, but in September,
1913, a separate organization (Zeppelin Wohlfahrt G.M.B.H.) was
provided. Count Zeppelin specified that homes for the men be provided
immediately; that they should be built "economically but that they
should make for comfort." One hundred and one single family houses were
completed in July, 1916, and the new community was named Zeppelindorf
(Zeppelin village) (Plate 29). Each house sits in a garden which enables
the occupant to raise his own vegetables and fruits.
The club house was opened in March, 1917. Here is a large dining room
for the workmen, which is also used for concerts, plays, meetings and
other social activities. There are several club rooms. Nearby are the
laundry, ice plant, steam plant, and other common utilities. The "Inn"
and general store are also patronized by the people of Friedrichshafen.
Later an agricultural department was established for the purpose of
supplying good food at low prices. Five large farms are worked by this
branch and cattle raising and fruit growing have made it one of the most
notable institutions in Central Europe.
[PLATE 42: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Bodensee."
The crew at the finish of the ship's 100th flight between
Berlin and Friedrichshafen, December 1919.
The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Nordstern."
Control car, front view.]
There is a savings bank which pays slightly more than the ordinary
interest rate which followed the erection of the public library where
all employees are encouraged in self-instruction. All sorts of
scientific books, popular works and magazines are provided, beside the
many lectures. Courses in domestic science are held for the women.
There was so much building to be done that a brick factory became one of
the most important institutions in Zeppelin Village, which has also
acquired an athletic field under the direction of an instructor in
physical culture.
Practically the same community, with all the institutions, etc., has
been created for the Zeppelin workers at Staaken, on the outskirts of
Berlin.
[PLATE 43: The "DELAG" Passenger Zeppelin "Nordstern."
Elevator Rudder and Altitude Controls.
Chief Engineer's Station Engine Telegraphs.
Steering Wheel and Compass.]