CHAPTER IV
BRITISH ARMY AIRSHIPS

The French and German military authorities began to consider
airships as an arm of the Service in the closing years of the
nineteenth century, and devoted both time and considerable sums
of money in the attempt to bring them to perfection. Their
appearance in the British Army was delayed for many years on
account of the expense that would be incurred in carrying out
experiments. In 1902, Colonel Templer, at that time head of the
Balloon Section, obtained the necessary sanction to commence
experiments, and two envelopes of gold-beaters skin of 50,000
cubic feet capacity were built. With their completion the funds
were exhausted, and nothing further done until 1907.


NULLI SECUNDUS I

In 1907 the first complete military airship in England was built,
which bore the grandiloquent title of Nulli Secundus. One of the
envelopes constructed by Colonel Templer was used: it was
cylindrical in shape with spherical ends. Suspended beneath the
envelope by means of a net and four broad silk bands was a
triangular steel framework or keel from which was slung a small
car. A 50 horsepower Antoinette engine was situated in the
forward part of the car which drove two metal-bladed propellers
by belts. At the after part of the keel were fitted a rudder and
small elevators, and two pairs of movable horizontal planes were
also fitted forward. It is remarkable that no stabilizing