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Role of Technology in the Failure of the Rigid Airship As an Invention

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Role of Technology in the Failure of the Rigid Airship As an Invention , THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE FAILURE OF TEE RIGID AIRSHIP AS AM INVENTION By PRICE BRADSHAW, JR i DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1975 , Copyright by Price Brad s h a w , Jr 19/5 M KNOv»LDDG;: i iL"i First thanks in this undertaking must be tendered to the members at the writer's committee: to Dr. William Woodruff, the chairman, who, besides rending and crit- icising the manuscript, provided encouragement when it was most needed; to Admiral Anthony L. Danis, who granted me the use of his personal collection of newspaper clip- pings concerning the Akron and the Maco n; to Dr. John K. Mahon, who provided funds to permit research in the LTA Society library in Akron, Ohio; and to Dr. Ueorge D. Winius, Dr. E. Ashby Hammond, and Dr. Shannon McCune whose tolerant forbearance has been greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank Mr. S. L. Butler of the Interlibraxy Loan section of the University of Florida Library and his staff for their ceaseless efforts on my behalf. Likewise my appreciation is extended to Messrs. Ray Jones and David Shelley of the Universi ty of Florida Library for 'heir assistance in finding obscure reference materials arid to the staff of the Engineering Library for their assistance. Thanks are also tendered to the most cooperative , staffs of t.ha Akron Pub] ie !'<ibraxy, the Library of Con- gress, nnd the National Archives, by whose kind per- mission cazv.c of the i.l 3 us ; .ra ti vo material herein is reproduced. I would especially like to acknowledge my debt to Mr. Smith of the Navy and Old Military Branch, and Mi", [--iley of the- Modern Military branch of the National Archives My thanks also go the the University of 'Cashing ton Press in Seattle fox their permission to reproduce photographic materia] My appreciation is also extended to Mrs. Nancy McDavid for typing the final manuscript. Finally, ray deepest gratitude is extended to my wire Margaret of whom I can honestly state that without her it could not have been dene. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 1 J_ .! List of Figures. - . vii Monetary Conversion Table. ... > i i i Abstract ..... ix Chapter I Introduction ........ 1 Some Forethoughts on the Process and Diffusion of Invention 1 Of the Airship Itself: A Technological Primer. 13 The Rigid Airship Considered Against the Background of Previous Developments in Transportation . 19 Chapter III The Launching of the Aerial Age . 24 Chapter III From Theoretical Ideas to Practic Application—The Problem of Financial Backing b2 Chapter IV The Phoenix: From Failure to Success 88 Chapter V The Rigid Ai; up in war 118 Chapter VI Competitors and Copiers 14 8 German v ...... 148 Britain * . 1 6 Fiance 178 United States 179 Chapter VII The Place of the Airship in Postw Military Aviation. ..... 189 Italy . 190 France - • • • 191 Britain ...... 196 United States ....... 203 220 Chapter VIII The Place of the Ai>-^hip in Post Commercial Aviation. ....,,-....- 227 . Germany 221 . 'iu Britain . ' 2 United States . Chapter XX Conclusions . Afterword 2 6 3 Appendix A, Comparative Stat icrf on Riqi. Airships . 269 Appendix B, Final. Dispobitio f Hi-jj-d Aj r ships , 2 77 Selected Bibliography. 284 Bioqrayhicai Sketch. , 296 list of figures Figure 1 , 1C Figure 2 61 Figare 3.. 61 Figure 4 . ........... 74 Figure 5 . L4 MONETARY CONVERSION TAbLE For the sake of convenience. T have left the sums of money cited in this pap^r in terms of national cur- rency, toy most of the period covered (except for the postwar German inflation that made the mark virtually worthless in November, 1924), the following conversion table approximates the exchange rate for Britain and Germany with the United States: British pound - $4.80 U. S, German marie - .25 U. S, Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida 5 ii Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree erf Doctor of Philosophy THE ROLE OF TECHNO LOCI:' IN THE FAILURE Or THE RIGID AIRSHIP AS AN INVENTION r>y Price Bradshaw, J: June, 197 5 Chairman: William Woodruff Ma j o r Depax tment : His tory The prominence of technology in Western society has been recognized by such promi rent social scientists as Arnold J. Toynbee and Pitirim A. Sorokin. Although these men disagree as to the actual significance of technology, Loth recogni '--••' the importance of the role of invention in technology. E. Colum Gil fill an has analyzed the in- ventive process, demonstrating that the success of an invention is dependent on a combination of factors. This combination of factors has been examined many times from the viewpoint of its effect on a successful invention. An examination of the combination of factors from the perspective of its effect on an invention that. failed, however, provides an otherwise unobtainable opportunity to investigate the nature of each of those factors and determine which were ultimate] y responsible for causing the invention to fail. Jit the field of transport, the rigid airship is generally considered to be an invention that failed. Yet of aii the technological responses to the challenging problem of flight, in the early 20th century, only the rigid airship seemed to provide a means of la roe capacity long distance transportation. Why did it fail? Of: necessity", an examination of the' forty years of development of this invention in context covers a wide range of the factors mentioned above. Nevertheless, it is possible to investigate each without isolating it from its relationship with the others. For example, in the period of experimental development before 1908, the lack of financial backing caused Count von Zeppelin to abandon his work on airships on two occasions. Eckener overcame this problem by making the rigid airship the subject {<:,na a symbol) of German national pride. The rigid airship became the only transport invention fi- nanced by public contributions. During World War I, the main challenge facing the airships of the German Naval Division was competition from the rapidly devel- oping airplane. The Was gave great impetus to the dif~ „ . fusion of. rrgid airship technology, which had been a virtual German monopoly; this process of technological diffusion culminated when the Allien Look what was loft of the German naval airship fleet and divided it among themselves However, the attempts titter the War to continue a rigid airship program in Britain, to establish one in France and the United States, an 3 Lo re-establish one in Germany ail foundered on the same , rock that had plagued the rigid airship from the very beginning: technological inadequacy. Because the technology of the airship was imperfectly understood, the postwar attempts to vise military or civil air-ship transport could not be fteed ox. the onus of disaster. The R 38, the Dixmude , the ^hcr-e;;eoah, the Akron, and the Macon -- all were lost due to tech- nological shortcomings Governments formerly v;i.liing Lo support airship development could not continue to do so in the face of the often spectacularly gruesome disasters that, were headline news. Thus., because additional financial backing was not forthcoming, the technological challenge could not be met. The rigid airship stool condemned not in principle but in practice. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION me Forethoughts on the Precast and Diffusion of invention The process of invention, which is generally regarded in the West as one of the prime movers of change, occupies a central, position in our society. To the sociologist, Pitirim A. Sorolcin, technological invention "comprised the roost productive and basic field of our modern culture." While few would deny this, there is, nevertheless, little agreement concerning the circumstances in which technologi- cal invention and innovation take place. According to Sorokin invention has achieved the im- portance in Western culture that it has only because this culture happens to be past the zenith of its sensate stage of development, in which empiricism is the determinant of truth." As k-;e move deeper into the twilight of this par- ticular sociocultural paradigm, technological invention wi "U become less and less capable of solving problems and placating needs because the cultural pattern will no longer provi :1c the proper nourishment for further develop- ment in this area. The relationship between Western culture and the acccpta^^c and adopt ion of technological inventioTi is therefore strictly a causa! one, making oar civilization different in quanvity but net in kind from til os e that hyve gone before. In distinct contrast to the views of Sorokin, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee sees technological invention and innovation as a societal force without parallel in tlie histories of other- civilizations. By providing the means whereby Western man has mastered his environment technological invention and innovation has compounded and accelerated the rate of social change so dramatically that Western civilization might best be described as a society of subsocieti.es in constant and permanent ferment,.. The process of invention and Western civilization mutually interact to produce a society without precedent. Sorokin and Toynbee are but two of the many scholars whose attention have been drawn to technological invention and vno concern themselves to understand its working and ramifications from several perspectives, including the origins, diffusion, and especially the commercial success of 5 nventions . It is to the latter aspect--the acceptance or rejection of an invention--- that we have addressed ourselves in this dissertation. For the rigid airship—the topic of this dissertatioii---is generally regarded as one of the classical "failures" of invention and innovation.
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