ZEPPELIN, FerdEnand, Cotner vote, German airship builder: h. Constance, Baden, 8 July 1838; d. Charlottenburg, Prussia, 8 March 1917. His father was Count Friedrich von Zeppelin, a Whrtteseberg court official. After studies at the Stuttgart Polytechnicum, the Ludwigsburg Military Academy and the University of Tubingen, he entered on a military career and as a lieutenant was one of the Ger man military observers in 1863 attached to the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War in the United States. His first ascent in a balloon made at Saint Paul, Minn., during this visit, is said to have been the incentive of his later experiments in aeronautics. He took part in the Seven Weeks' War of 1866, fighting for Wurttemberg against Prussia, and was an offi cer of cavalry in the Franco-German War 1871 72. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the German army and in 1891 at the age of 53 retired and devoted his time and wealth to experiments in connection with dirigible bal loons. While increasing proofs of success en
couraged him to continue his efforts, a record of failures which reduced him to poverty marked his experiments for several years. Im perial patronage and public subscriptions, how ever, enabled him at last to conquer all diffi culties, and in 1908-09 dirigibles of the type constructed with his name were makin• success ful journeys ranging from 350 to miles. Thirteen Zeppelins, however, had been de stroyed and numerous lives sacrificed during the experiments up to 1914. During the Euro pean War, Zeppelins were used mostly for raids over Belgium and England, and over 40 were reported as destroyed. Their failure as warships is said to have been a great dkap volumene to Count Zeppelin. (See Acarosati yes; Dnuctat.z). Consult Hearne, R. P., 'Zep pelins and Super-Zeppelins' (New York 1916).