In a small ship the crew are all the time attached to
their parachutes and in the event of the ship catching fire have
only to jump overboard and possess an excellent chance of being
saved. In rigid airships where members of the crew have to move
from one end of the ship to the other, the harness is worn and
parachutes are disposed in the keel and cars as are lifebuoys in
seagoing vessels. Should an emergency arise, the nearest
parachute can be attached to the harness by means of a spring
hook, which is the work of a second, and a descent can be made.
It is worthy of note that there has never been a fatal accident
or any case of a parachute failing to open properly with a man
attached.
The material embodied in this chapter, brief and inadequate as it
is, should enable the process of the development of the airship
to be easily followed. Much has been omitted that ought by right
to have been included, but, on the other hand, intricate
calculations are apt to be tedious except to mathematicians, and
these have been avoided as far as possible in the following
pages.
CHAPTER II
EARLY AIRSHIPS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT TO THE PRESENT DAY
The science of ballooning had reached quite an advanced stage by
the middle of the eighteenth century, but the construction of
an airship was at that time beyond the range of possibility.
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