The only thing that bothers me is to provide for the recoil of
the guns I want to carry. Maybe you can help me with that. Come
on, now, I'll explain how the affair works, and what I hope to
accomplish with it."

In brief Tom's aerial warship was a sort of German Zeppelin
type of dirigible balloon, rising in the air by means of a gas
container, or, rather, several of them, for the section for
holding the lifting gas element was divided by bulkheads.

The chief difference between dirigible balloons and ordinary
aeroplanes, as you all know, is that the former are lifted from
the earth by a gas, such as hydrogen, which is lighter than air,
while the aeroplane lifts itself by getting into motion, when
broad, flat planes, or surfaces, hold it up, just as a flat stone
is held up when you sail it through the air. The moment the
stone, or aeroplane, loses its forward motion, it begins to fall.

This is not so with a dirigible balloon. It is held in the air
by means of the lifting gas, and once so in the air can be sent
in any direction by means of propellers and rudders.

Tom's aerial warship contained many new features. While it was
as large as some of the war-type Zeppelins, it differed from them
materially. But the details would be of more interest to a
scientific builder of such things than to the ordinary reader, so
I will not weary you with them.

Sufficient to say that Tom's craft consisted first of a great
semi-rigid bag, or envelope, made of specially prepared oiled