As yet, the initial cost of a large rigid airship is very great in comparison with that of the average size passenger airplane. However the combination of expert research and probable quantity production promises much in the reduction of construction costs. The ability to produce large airships will result in a double advantage. As the size of the airship increases, the "paying load" also increases. The opposite is true of an airplane.

Inasmuch as the "paying load" is likely to be the most important item in commercial success, an examination of loads already carried on this type of aircraft may well prove enlightening. In 1917 a German airship flew over four thousand two hundred miles from Bulgaria to East Africa and return with a military load of ten tons. This flight stood as a non-stop record until 1924, when the Los Angeles was flown from Germany to the United States, a distance of about five thousand miles. On this initial trip, the latter airship carried about twenty tons of freight, exclusive of fuel and oil; however, its total disposable load is rated at forty tons. Great Britain is finishing a new airship, the R-100, which will have a capacity of one hundred persons and ten tons of freight at a cruising speed of seventy-five miles an hour. Germany likewise is rushing to completion an airship, LZ-127, half as large again as the Los Angeles, with a "paying load" of sixteen tons. Thus 1928 in all likelihood will see Great Britain and Germany in an airship race across the Atlantic. Incidentally, it may be noted here that no airplane has ever yet succeeded in crossing the Atlantic ocean from Europe directly to the United States, although it has been done successfully twice by airship.

The worst single enemy of airships in the past has been the hydrogen lifting gas, which is highly inflammable. However, the use of helium gas has banished the fear of explosion or fire, as helium is entirely non-inflammable. The United States is most fortunate in possessing the only known source of helium that can be produced in any quantity. While its cost is relatively high, quantity production is tending toward a more reasonable price level. Besides, chemists maintain that they have been able to extract helium from hydrogen and from air in laboratory experiments. One of the most promising means for reducing airship costs is in the newly developed substitute for goldbeaters' skin.

As is well known, the gas cells in a rigid airship are in large drumshaped sections placed transversely, similar to bulkheads in a battleship. In order to retain the gas, which is so diffusible, goldbeaters' skin has to be used. This material, made from the intestines of cattle, is scarce and expensive. Recently, however, the United States Board of Standards has succeeded in producing a new fabric that is lighter in weight than goldbeaters' skin and, more important yet, is of a lower permeability. This fabric can be made for less than one-half the cost of goldbeaters' skin, which, in a large airship, amounts to about one-ninth of the total cost.

In airship operation, one must necessarily take into consideration the landing fields and their maintenance. Formerly when the airship had to be pulled to the ground and "walked" into its hangar, a large force of manpower had to be mobilized; but this is now obviated by the use of mooring masts. The latter may be correctly termed "aerial docks" and can be operated by as few as ten men. The hangars are thus comparable to a steamship's drydock and the airship moves from one mooring mast to another with an occasional visit to its hangar for repairs.

Recently the Los Angeles landed successfully at sea on the broad deck of the new aircraft carrier, U. S. S. Saratoga. This feat shows that it is possible greatly to increase the radius of operation of an airship and should serve as an impetus to transatlantic service, as refuelling at sea can be done if necessary. This would allow airships to carry a much larger "paying load", as they would not have to carry so much heavy gasoline. This weight of liquid fuel is a burden for all types of aircraft, but is relatively a much greater handicap for airplanes than for airships. However, the Germans are perfecting a fuel gas for airships that has shown remarkable results in the latest tests. This gas is stored in cells and is of the same weight as air, so that as it is used up, air displaces it with no change of the total weight. By this means, the new German airship LZ-127 will be able to save about thirty tons, thereby more than doubling her carrying capacity of freight. Incidentally this important weight-saving scheme cannot be applied to airplanes as now constructed.

Another distinctive advantage of airship navigation is the ability to descend to a low altitude and at the same time greatly

slacken the speed without any danger whatever of stalling or making a forced landing. The scientific value of this power was very well demonstrated in the two North Pole flights in 1926. In the immediate Polar region, Commander Byrd flew his airplane at an altitude of three thousand feet, and after circling, returned to his base at Spitzbergen. On the other hand Amundsen in his airship, the Norge, flew at an altitude of about seven hundred feet and cruised around the vicinity for nearly two hours. Obviously much more scientific data could be gathered in the airship. During the solar eclipse in 1925, the Los Angeles maintained a steady speed of only forty-four miles an hour at the time of totality, thus greatly aiding in the taking of correct observations. One more instance will suffice to show an airship's exclusive value to humanity. In December, 1927, when the Grayson airplane was lost, the Navy sent out the Los Angeles to help in the search. The commanding officer of the airship was reported to have said that it would be possible to go low enough and slow enough to drop a rope ladder and rescue Mrs. Grayson.

Airship projects are now in preparation in both Europe and America. Great Britain in particular is developing a very comprehensive airship programme, designed to cover nearly all parts of her empire. The subject of air communications was thoroughly investigated by the Air Ministry, and their findings were laid before the Imperial Conference of 1926 in a report called The Approach Towards a System of Imperial Air Communications, from which are taken the following quotations:

After the war, it was realised that, unlike aeroplanes, airships were particularly adapted to long continuous flights over large distances, and that they were likely to prove of special value to the British Empire, the different parts of which are separated by great oceans. When this experimental programme has been successfully completed there can be no doubt that airship design and construction will have been placed upon an entirely new and more practical basis; and the way will then be clear for carrying out the further experiments which are required to establish the practicability of regular airship operation throughout the Empire.

The first unit in the airship programme referred to above is the new large dirigible, the R-100, which as already stated is expected to fly to the United States in 1928. This one and its sister ship,

the R-101, will be approximately twice the size of the Los Angeles. They are designed to carry a hundred passengers with nearly all the amenities of life one finds on a modern steamship. With a radius of four thousand miles, the R-100 will develop a speed of seventy-five miles an hour. Due to the prevailing westerly winds encountered over the Atlantic Ocean, this craft should be able to fly from New York to London in forty-eight hours with a full load of passengers. In the matter of time-saving, airship travel between England and India would save ten days; between England and Australia, seventeen days; and between England and Canada, three and one-half days.

Most persons naturally wonder why it is that airship development seems so far behind that of airplanes. It is another case of C'est la guerre. At the beginning of the World War, airship transportation was considerably more advanced than was the airplane. But military needs demanded speed and quick manoeuvrability, and the result was that all the research and experience went into airplane design and the neglected airships never really had a fair chance. It has been estimated that of all the money spent up to date on aviation, ninety-five per cent. has gone into airplanes. Everything considered, it is remarkable that the airship has done as well as it has. It takes much research, money, and experience to develop such elaborate mechanisms into practical commercial successes. Only last September the National Advisory Committee for Aëronautics appointed a subcommittee on airships, although this official governmental body has been in existence since 1915. However, there is hope that in the many technical schools, airship study and design will soon come into its own.

There is little question that, as the commercial possibilities of airship transportation are realized, more interest will be taken in this type of aircraft and more financial aid will be forthcoming to promote its development. Just as new methods of travel in the past have forced back the frontiers of the world, just so will airship communication push them back still further and thereby improve the status of mankind.

HOKUM OF THE INTELLIGENTZIA

BY CATHERINE BEACH ELY

ALMOST all varieties of hokum have been enlarged upon in current literature except the Hokum of the Intelligentzia, who offer the most fertile field for this product-a field all the richer because it has been so exclusively the property of the superminds. We shall apply the spade to the large flourishing field of hokum which modern intellectuals produce, and we shall hold up for inspection a few of the most luxuriously flaunting specimens of the hokum cultivated by them to get the applause of their audience.

First Specimen of the Intelligentzia's Hokum: The Middle Class is Thickheaded and Hardhearted. It is reiterated and reemphasized by sophisticates of the present day in the many forms of print to which they have access, that the Middle Class is bigoted, prosaic, unimaginative, commercial, inartistic, vulgar, unprogressive, domineering, crude-in short that the bane of the nation is the obnoxious Middle Class. Not one of the simon pure intellectuals has a good word to say for this deplorable stratum of society which somehow obstructs the magnificent parade of America's Illuminati toward their promised land. It is implied that were it not for this opaque and stolid Middle Class, the Intelligentzia would shine in undiminished glory upon an enraptured world.

But when we examine this offshoot of the modernized cerebellum-this idea about the stupid Middle Class-we wonder how the concept attained such flourishing dimensions. A large proportion of the world's greatest statesmen, painters, writers, actors, poets, and musicians came from this Middle Class which is thoroughly berated by the hard-driven intellectualistic pen. Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Dickens, Hugo, Balzac, Whitman, Schiller, Beethoven, Handel, Gainsborough, Corot, Columbus, Lincoln, Booth, Patti, Jenny Lind, Edison, Pasteur, and a host of other remarkable men and women somehow emerged from