NEW BRITISH NAVAL AIRSHIP.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3184, 1 April 1911, Page 9

NEW BRITISH NAVAL AIRSHIP.

ROMANCE OF INVENTION

Tile large naval airship being built •by Messrs Vickery, Sons, and Maxim, Barrow-in-Furness, for the British Admiralty is now almost completed, and' will' be submitted to practical tests on an early, date. The principal dimensions of. the vessel have already been made public—quite unofficially, of course —but it is not generally known that one of the. most important part's of the work lias been done in the East End of Glasgow. T-he special fabric used in the

construction, extending to about 46,000 square yards, has been “proofed”— this is, rendered' absolutely waterproof and gas-tight—by the loco Proofing Company, Ltd., Bridgeton, wlicse. factory has been employed in this work night and day for about a year past. The original fabric (according to the ‘Glasgow Herald’) is really very fine silk —to .all appearances Japanese silk, and practically waterproof even before being specially treated—and it- is woven.in the nearest way yet accomplished to “diagonal weft.” This means that it has much more elasticity than material which is woven in the ordinary way, and so is much more suitable for the purpose of covering a large balloon such, as the of “Naval Airship No. 1.” It was supplied to the works, at. Bridgeton by the Government, from an English manufacturing centre, hut the name of the place where it was actually woven has been kept secret. It is understood, however, that the company who manufactured it are subsidised by the Government, for that purpose. At Bridgeton it was “proofed” iiv the iloco .process, into which —for most- of the material required for the airship —aluminium entered largely, and its color when finished was silver, cr that of aluminium, which will give the vessel a brilliant appearance when it is in the air. AN EXPENSIVE PROCESS.

About'-eighteen months ago, before the material was accepted' by the Government for use in connection with the airship at Barrow, specimens were subjected, to the severest possible tests in the National Physical Laboratory in comparison with rubber-proofed fabric and with gold beater’s skin, and were found to be of the best known material .for this, particular purpose. The fabric is less tiian a third of the weight of rubber-proofed material, being only .about 100 grammes per square metre, .as compared with about 300 grammes in the case of rubber, and it does not lend itself to spontaneous combustion. The process was discovered by two .Scotsmen, who are at present heads of the firm at Bridgeton, and it is as yet so expensive that the process alone, apart from the price of the original silk, costs about £1 Is per square yard. .Several Continental Governments, it may be added, have endeavoured to obtain the same results with bright yellow color instead of aluminium, but they have not so far been successful. According to the most reliable figures available the new airship is 560 ft in maximum length, 48ft in maximum dia.meter, and will contain a volume of 706,330 cubic feet of gas. She will have a lifting capacity of twenty-one tons, and will be propelled by two eight-cylinder 100-200 h.p. Wolsley .motors at a speed of about forty-five miles per hour. ,

A NEW MATERIAL

She has three propellers, one large -driven by an after motor and two .smaller on outriggers. The steering will be effected horizontally by a tri,plane on each side under the bow and a- biplane on each side abaft tile horizontal fins, and vertically by two-sets of triplanes rudders, one above the stem and the other below. The vessel •is constructed of a new material called “duralumin,” which is now used for the first time for any purpose, and is understood to have all the good qualities of aluminium, is lighter, ana cau be soldered, and, unlike aluminium, is not liable to oxidisation. The vessel has been designed to remain in the air if necessary for three .days, a fact ■which shows that the fabric of which ?&e is constructed must be almost absolutely hydrogen proof, and nearer to dicing gas-tight than any yet used, i