CAN ZEPPS BE NETTED?

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4155, 4 February 1916, Page 3

CAN ZEPPS BE NETTED?

AN INGENIOUS INVENTION

I hear that tho same ingenuity which has characterised _ the British Admiralty in dealing with tlie submarine peril is being carefully consulered in aerial circles (says the “Daily Dispatch” London correspondent). I heard, to-day from an American visitor that certain aero-nautical engineers in the States had been expounding a newly-invented contrivance for netting Zepps. This contrivance consists, as would appear, of a number of captive and unmanned balloons raised in pairs at varying altitudes, and all linked up with one another by a system of vertical and horizontal cables, so as to form a huge net. Tho motions of the later are directed from the earth, whence an electric current can also he directed to any portion of the netting in such a manner as to ignite and explode the hostile airship upon its approach. I understand that full diagrams of this ingenious contrivance have already been published in the leading engineering journals across the Atlantic. But I should like to see it experimented with by our own flying service without delay. It is not so many weeks ago that I asked in these columns why our home authorities did not utilise to the full the varied capacity of the captive balloon for observation if not for fighting purposes against enemy aircraft.