Ferdinand von Zeppelin: The Airship Commander

Earning the reputation of "Crazy Count Zeppelin", Ferdinand was always up for an adventure. Aarati tells the story of the military man turned balloonist and his never ending thirst for excitement. 

Transcript

Aarati Asundi (00:12)
Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Smart Tea Podcast, where we talk about the lives of scientists and innovators who shape the world. I'm Aarati.

Jyoti Asundi (00:20)
And I'm her mom, Jyoti.

Aarati Asundi (00:22)
So the inspiration for this week's podcast comes actually from one of my other favorite podcasts, My Favorite Murder.

Jyoti Asundi (00:32)
Ooh! I've heard so much about this podcast and you have shared very good stories with me. 

Aarati Asundi (00:39)
Yes, it's a true crime podcast. The two ladies are very funny. But one of the episodes that they did a while back was about the Hindenburg disaster.

Jyoti Asundi (00:50)
Big one.

Aarati Asundi (00:51)
Yes. During that episode they talked a bit about zeppelins and how the Hindenburg was one of the biggest luxury Zeppelins ever created. And it just got me thinking about who invented the Zeppelin and how did that happen? So...

Jyoti Asundi (01:08)
Yeah.

Aarati Asundi (01:09)
I found the guy's name. Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Jyoti Asundi (01:13)
Oh what a surprise. Okay, uh-huh.

Aarati Asundi (01:15)
Yes. So started looking into his story and it's really interesting. I found a biography that was written by Margaret Goldsmith in 1931, which had a lot of details about his life and everything. 

Jyoti Asundi (01:30)
Oh okay. If his biography is being written in 1931, this is even before the Wright brothers, because zeppelins were before the aircraft. 

Aarati Asundi (01:40)
Yeah, this is right around that time. People are thinking about how do we travel in the sky, and Zeppelins did come before aircrafts, but it's all happening very, very close, like right around the same time. 
Yeah, so I was reading about his life. It's, it's really fascinating actually. The more I read about it, I was like, this guy, you know, amazing, amazing life. So let's start with, of course, where he was born. He was born on July 8th, 1838, to a wealthy family in the small town of Constance in the Grand Duchy of Baden, which today is southern Germany.

Jyoti Asundi (02:19)
Okay, this all happened in Germany, okay.

Aarati Asundi (02:23)
Yes, I was actually getting a little bit confused with the geography and things like that because this is all happening in the you know, the mid-1800s and so it's not Germany as we think of it today. It's actually like this collection of states and kingdoms that are kind of forming this German Empire. 

Jyoti Asundi (02:39)
Ah! So there has been what would in modern terms be called redistricting and has geopolitical landscape has changed quite a bit since then. 

Aarati Asundi (02:50)
Yeah, the German Empire was a lot bigger than Germany is today. So if you were to look at where town of Constance is where he was born, it's in southern Germany. His grandfather, Ferdinand Ludwig Zeppelin, was the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the King of Wurttemberg, which was right next door to Baden where he was born. His father, Count Friedrich von Zeppelin, was a counselor to a German prince, and his mother, Amelie, was from a family of textile manufacturers.

Jyoti Asundi (03:22)
So these people are, hobnobbing with the wealthy and sometimes with royalty. They're rubbing elbows with royalty. 

Aarati Asundi (03:30)
Oh yeah, they're upper class.

Jyoti Asundi (03:32)
Yeah he's up there. Okay.

Aarati Asundi (03:35)
They lived in Amelie's family home on a small island, a little spit of land in the middle of Lake Constance, is in the Alps.

Jyoti Asundi (03:44)
Wow. 

Aarati Asundi (03:44)
Probably beautiful, gorgeous, yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (03:45)
A little island on a in the middle of the Alps. 

Aarati Asundi (03:50)
Yeah, surrounded by snowy mountains.

Jyoti Asundi (03:52)
Must have been gorgeous all year round actually.

Aarati Asundi (03:56)
Friedrich and Amelie had three children: a daughter named Eugenie, and two sons, Ferdinand and Eberhard. So Ferdinand, the one we're talking about, is the middle child. Count Friedrich, although he was a successful diplomat, was really more of a gentle poet at heart. And Amelie had some sort of illness, we don't know what, but it practically left her disabled for most of her life. So when Ferdinand was two, his father retired and bought a large estate in Girsburg on the shore of Lake Constance so that he could focus on taking care of his wife and children.

Jyoti Asundi (04:34)
Yeah. Okay.

Aarati Asundi (04:35)
Ferdinand and his siblings had an idyllic childhood with very loving parents and private teachers who lived on the estate. And although this all sounds very fancy and very upper class, his parents did a really good job of raising the children to be very down-to-earth and not really realize or emphasize that they were part of the ruling class. And so there were a lot of stories about them not having fancy food all the time. When Ferdinand got his first pair of boots, it was like a really treasured possession. So things like that, they really raised them to be more down to earth.

Jyoti Asundi (05:14)
Yes. That's not an easy task. If you have money, it's easy to throw money at a problem to make it go away. It's much harder to have that self-discipline and self-control to not indulge the child. And for Ferdinand to think of his first pair of boots as a big treasure, it tells you that they have really them very grounded.

Aarati Asundi (05:36)
Yes, yes. Ferdinand was a charming kid. He was very good looking, very intelligent, and so people just automatically loved him. He remembers learning a lot from observing things that happened on the lake. He said, "Here, in Constance, I learned so many things which were important in my future work. As a child, I watched the ducks and the geese swimming in the canal. I observed the movement of ships on the lake, and I watched the wind sweeping away smoke which came from their smokestacks."

Jyoti Asundi (06:10)
Wow.

Aarati Asundi (06:11)
Naturally he became a great swimmer and his father took him mountain hiking and encouraged him to ask questions about the things he saw.

Jyoti Asundi (06:20)
Fantastic.

Aarati Asundi (06:21)
He also taught Ferdinand to keep cool under pressure, which is fortunate, because one winter day Ferdinand and a friend were playing on a pond that had frozen over. Ferdinand was running on the ice when suddenly the ice broke and he fell through. he managed to hang on to the ice with his hands, but the water currents were dragging on his legs.

Jyoti Asundi (06:43)
Of course.

Aarati Asundi (06:44)
His friend had no idea what to do and started to cry, so which is...

Jyoti Asundi (06:48)
Yeah, that's very useful. 

Aarati Asundi (06:51)
Very relatable also. I would also be panicking, like...

Jyoti Asundi (06:53)
Of course. 

Aarati Asundi (06:53)
...there's no adult around. I have no idea what to do. What do I do? What do I do?

Jyoti Asundi (06:57)
This this really sounds like you and Maria, actually. 

Aarati Asundi (07:01)
Oh yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (07:02)
Maria was your other co-host in some of the episodes.

Aarati Asundi (07:05)
My best friend, yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (07:07)
Yes, and this is exactly the dynamic between the two of you. She knows exactly what to do in any crisis and keeps her cool and she's extremely resourceful. 

Aarati Asundi (07:17)
And she would be the one to fall through the ice too. She would be the one.

Jyoti Asundi (07:20)
And then, yes, exactly. And that's what happened here too.

Aarati Asundi (07:22)
Yeah. Yes. But Ferdinand kept his cool. He told his friend to stop crying and carefully crawl towards him and hold out his hands. His friend did that, and Ferdinand was able to grab onto his friend and pull himself out of the water.

Jyoti Asundi (07:37)
At least the friend followed directions. Again that sounds like you. 

Aarati Asundi (07:40)
That exactly like me, yes.

Jyoti Asundi (07:40)
You're willing- if Maria told you exactly what to do in the crisis, you would do it. I trust- I have I trust you in that.

Aarati Asundi (07:45)
Yes, I'm very good at following direction.

Jyoti Asundi (07:47)
Correct.

Aarati Asundi (07:48)
In 1852 when Ferdinand was 14, his mother died from that illness, whatever it was. 

Jyoti Asundi (07:56)
That's a tough one. Fourteen years old and they lose their mom. He's 14, so he's the middle child. So there's one younger than that even. ⁓ my goodness. ⁓

Aarati Asundi (08:05)
Yeah. Yeah. And they had been such a happy and well adjusted family, also. So it's like even more, first brush with real death and grief and at such a young age.

Jyoti Asundi (08:18)
Very sad.

Aarati Asundi (08:19)
Before her death, though, she helped select a tutor for her children, Robert Moser. And Robert was a blessing for Ferdinand. He was very modern in his approach to teaching and quickly realized that Ferdinand was more interested in science and machinery. And so he didn't waste any time trying to teach him Latin or religion or, you know, about their province, which is what the normal schools would have done or other tutors.

Jyoti Asundi (08:48)
Yes.

Aarati Asundi (08:48)
Instead, he taught them about distant lands that were across the oceans, and then he took them to workshops where they could see how the ships were being built, like the ocean liners.

Jyoti Asundi (09:00)
My goodness, what a fantastic, well-tailored education.

Aarati Asundi (09:04)
Mm-hmm. He saw what he was interested in and said, Okay, let's look- let's study exactly that.

Jyoti Asundi (09:09)
Yes, yeah, make it extremely personal and absolutely well fitted for your temperament.

Aarati Asundi (09:16)
Exactly. However, for someone of Ferdinand's class, it was just kind of expected that you would serve in the military. So even though Ferdinand was much more interested in science, he never actually seriously considered science as a career. So he went to the War Academy as was expected and joined the military. And he did very well there. By the time he was twenty years old, he was a lieutenant in the eighth Wurttemberg Infantry Regiment, but he was also bored out of his mind.

Jyoti Asundi (09:49)
Oh!

Aarati Asundi (09:50)
Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (09:50)
He probably was using a fraction of his intelligence to do complex, extremely complex tasks. Okay.

Aarati Asundi (09:57)
Mm-hmm. So he wrote a formal petition to the Wurttemberg War Office to ask if he could transfer to the University of Tubingen as an engineering student.

Jyoti Asundi (10:08)
Oh okay.

Aarati Asundi (10:10)
This was a very unusual request for an army officer to want to go back to being a student, but he was from an upper class family, he had a lot of connections, and so no one was really gonna argue with him. It's like, okay, yeah, whatever you want to do.

Jyoti Asundi (10:23)
Yes. Plus he's done very It's not like he's running away from one thing or trying to hide from his military... He's doing very well in his military career.

Aarati Asundi (10:34)
Mm-hmm. People were just kind of like, why are you doing this? You're already like got a good career as a military officer. You want to go back? 

Jyoti Asundi (10:38)
Yes, yeah, you're set.You can be climbing the ranks. Yeah, got it.

Aarati Asundi (10:44)
Yeah. Okay, weird. So he spent one year at the university learning engineering and chemistry, and then he went back to the military and joined the engineering corps. And again, this was a very unusual move for someone of his class because engineers were usually from merchant families...

Jyoti Asundi (11:03)
Of course.

Aarati Asundi (11:03)
...whereas people from the upper class were usually like guards to royalty or important dignitary, and so that is usually the trajectory he would have been on.

Jyoti Asundi (11:12)
He moved away from a trajectory where he was rising to power, hobnobbing again with people who have power and moving to becoming a background engineer who does things behind the scenes. 

Aarati Asundi (11:26)
Yes. But he didn't care. He liked it a lot better and...

Jyoti Asundi (11:31)
Yeah that's his temperament. 

Aarati Asundi (11:33)
Yep, and he worked very hard and he was soon promoted to the rank of first lieutenant.

Jyoti Asundi (11:38)
Then, as we will see as a theme in his life, on what seemed like a totally random whim, in 1863, Ferdinand wrote a petition to the king saying he wanted to go to the United States to take part in the civil war that was happening there.

Jyoti Asundi (11:56)
What? Why would you want to...?

Aarati Asundi (11:57)
Yeah, so it came as a big shock.

Jyoti Asundi (12:00)
Yes, you're a German and there is a war going on somewhere else where one huge country is fractionated basically into two and they are fighting each other. And somehow you want to get into the middle of that fray. For what purpose?

Aarati Asundi (12:17)
His friends were also like, "What are you doing? Why are you- why are you trying to go there?"

Jyoti Asundi (12:20)
Yes, correct.

Aarati Asundi (12:22)
And so his real reasoning was that he had been keeping tabs on what was happening around the world. And honestly, all he really wanted was an adventure. And so America is, very exciting right now. Like...

Jyoti Asundi (12:36)
Of course, it's always exciting. Yes.

Aarati Asundi (12:37)
...you know, it's a civil war. War is always exciting. And so he's like, I wanna go be in the middle of that. And it also happens that America was desperate for military men with experience, no matter where they came from. And so in his petition he wrote that if he went to observe the Civil War, he could analyze how America's army was organized. And so that's the like reason that he used in his petition, but all he really wanted was a chance to see the world.

Jyoti Asundi (13:09)
Okay.

Aarati Asundi (13:10)
And he got his way because, you know, people were like, This is so weird of you to do, but you have family connections and they helped him push his petition through and they helped him even like, get transportation and everything. And so he traveled to the United States, and once he got to Washington, because he's, you know, an upper class person in Germany, he even got to meet with President Lincoln. And President Lincoln allowed him to join the Union Army and wished him luck on the study of military organization.

Jyoti Asundi (13:43)
Oh wow! This is amazing that such doors open for him. 

Aarati Asundi (13:49)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So he joined up with the Army of the Potomac, and although he really was just there to observe, he couldn't help taking an active part in the various battles the army was part of.

Jyoti Asundi (14:02)
Yes. Of course, he's in the thick of things.

Aarati Asundi (14:04)
Yeah. And so this small army is traveling around, you know, various parts to various battles, and he starts becoming more interested in exploring more of America. So, again, on a whim, he hears about an expedition that was leaving Washington to go explore the source of the Missouri River in Montana. And he's like, Me too. I wanna go too. And so he just up and leaves the army to go on this expedition.

Jyoti Asundi (14:34)
You know, I'm kind of going onto his side now. It sounded like a zany idea in the beginning, but this sounds amazing. 

Aarati Asundi (14:42)
It does.

Jyoti Asundi (14:42)
To be able to go and find the mouth of the river in Montana? It's like going on a wild west adventure. 

Aarati Asundi (14:50)
It really was.

Jyoti Asundi (14:51)
Because it's uninhabited at that point, right? There's not much going on.

Aarati Asundi (14:53)
Yeah, it's completely wild. Yeah, completely wild. And so...

Jyoti Asundi (14:57)
Oh man, it must have been gorgeous. That place must have been gorgeous in those days because even today it is beautiful.

Aarati Asundi (15:04)
Yes. However they were led by two Native Americans, but no one, including Ferdinand himself, had much experience in exploration. And so the group got lost and they had to live off of the land. 

Jyoti Asundi (15:18)
More fun.

Aarati Asundi (15:20)
Yeah, more fun. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (15:20)
More fun, hey more fun. This now is turning into Survivor. Live off the land.

Aarati Asundi (15:26)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, they were- they were like literally eating rats. And they came very close to starvation before finding their way back to civilization. 

Jyoti Asundi (15:36)
Well, did he have fun?

Aarati Asundi (15:37)
He had so much fun. Ferdinand was just like, that was the best adventure ever. I loved it. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (15:44)
Oh my goodness. Okay.

Aarati Asundi (15:47)
Apparently he was just always very optimistic that things would work out because they always had in the past for him, you know? He's like part of the upper class, so like doors open for him all the time. And so it's just kind of a fact of his life that things work out when he wants them to. And so I don't think he ever really seriously considered that he could die. He was like, "It'll be fine. I'm always fine." Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (16:08)
It will be great. But if I die, I die trying to have fun. So that's fine too.

Aarati Asundi (16:14)
Yes.

Jyoti Asundi (16:14)
What a lovely mindset. Enjoy every minute of every day. That's the way to live life. I like him. 

Aarati Asundi (16:21)
Yes, he's really a fun character. Yeah, so he's taking every opportunity, and so another one arose. On the way back from Montana in 1863, he stopped by in St. Paul, Minnesota, and here he met a German-born aeronaut who offered to take him on his first hot air balloon ride. 

Jyoti Asundi (16:42)
Oh! Now that would have really tickled his fancy.

Aarati Asundi (16:47)
Oh yeah. So the hot air balloon was tethered to the ground, so basically it was just going up and down. But this is what sparked his initial interest in the potential of actually traveling to places by balloon. You can go over land, you can go over sea. You could go anywhere.
So by the time Ferdinand came back to Wurttemberg, he had started intensely studying ballooning. But apart from America and some shaky balloon expeditions in France, there really wasn't much to go on. No one had really figured out how to navigate in a balloon and steer through air currents. 
And also things like taking enough fuel for longer journeys was a problem. And the more people and supplies that you wanted to transport, the more fuel you had to take and the heavier the weight became that you had to lift. And so, you know, it's- there's a lot of things that people have not figured out about air travel at this point.

Jyoti Asundi (17:44)
Correct. That makes sense. 

Aarati Asundi (17:47)
And so he didn't really tell anyone about his interest, and he just quietly kind of settled back into military life, but he's quietly, reading about this, studying about this.

Jyoti Asundi (17:56)
Yeah, it's on his radar and he's slowly quietly the field better.

Aarati Asundi (18:02)
Yeah. But outwardly he's completely back into military life. So in 1866, he distinguished himself during the war between Prussia and Austria and earned a military cross for bravery by swimming across a river to deliver an important message to allies because the bridge was occupied by enemies.
And so he really started earning this reputation among his friends and colleagues as "The Crazy Count" who went off and pulled crazy stunts like this. Like he went and got lost on this random expedition in America. He took a hot air balloon ride. He jumped in a river, you know, and swam across it. Like he's just doing, you know, insane things. Mm-hmm. And

Jyoti Asundi (18:46)
Up for any adventure at any time.

Aarati Asundi (18:51)
And although the military just chalked it up to him being really brave, that's really what it was. It was the thirst for adventure and excitement.

Jyoti Asundi (18:57)
Yes, yes.

Aarati Asundi (18:59)
But because he now has this reputation of being very brave, he was made a personal guard to the Crown Prince William of Wurttemberg. Which, you know, again, anyone would have been like, "Wow, you've got it made, what a great career!" But he was bored. 

Jyoti Asundi (19:12)
He must have been bored. 

Aarati Asundi (19:13)
He was so bored. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (19:13)
I was thinking this, this is going to be boring because you have to follow this other person around and kind of you are at their whim basically. If they want to lounge around in bed all day, that's it. But you can't stray far because you are their bodyguard or a security person.

Aarati Asundi (19:34)
And it was a lot of like social parties and, you know, visiting dignitaries and things like that. So it's just like,

Jyoti Asundi (19:40)
Yes, schmoozing and politicking and all that. 

Aarati Asundi (19:43)
Yes. So again he requested a transfer to the military intelligence department, which allowed him the ability to travel around studying fortifications and gathering information.
In 1869, living up to his "Crazy Count" reputation, Ferdinand suddenly announced that he was getting married. And all of his friends were like, wait, what?"

Jyoti Asundi (20:07)
To whom? Yes.

Aarati Asundi (20:08)
"To whom" yeah. Like "We thought you were a bachelor for life. What is this?"

Jyoti Asundi (20:12)
Yes and "You have been running around the world all- when did you get time to actually court a lady and get her to say yes to you?"

Aarati Asundi (20:20)
So it turns out he had met a woman named Isabella von Wolff several years ago at his brother's wedding and he had kept it very secret, to the chest.

Jyoti Asundi (20:29)
But if I remember right his brother was younger than him. 

Aarati Asundi (20:32)
Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (20:32)
He was the middle child, his sister was older.

Aarati Asundi (20:33)
And I think that's why people thought he was just gonna be a bachelor for life, because it's like, you know, he's too busy adventuring and, you know, doing whatever.

Jyoti Asundi (20:41)
Yes, his younger brother has already got married several years ago. This fellow is still running around like a loose cannonball.

Aarati Asundi (20:48)
Yes. But he had met this woman at brother's wedding, and basically kept the engagement a secret until the last possible minute when he had to reveal that, yeah, actually I'm having a wedding. And it was a very good match. Ferdinand was very candid with Isabella that his work would always come first and that he might leave on spontaneous trips and she was like, "That's cool. I'm fine with that." 

Jyoti Asundi (21:13)
Wow! What a wonderful pair!

Aarati Asundi (21:17)
And she was always very, supportive of his work. 

Jyoti Asundi (21:21)
Wonderful.

Aarati Asundi (21:22)
In 1870, when war broke out again, this time between Prussia and France, Wurttemberg was again pulled into this fight. Again Ferdinand distinguished himself by taking part in a raid into French territory to gather information about the French army's number and movements. Ferdinand was the only member to survive from this raiding party... 

Jyoti Asundi (21:44)
Wow.

Aarati Asundi (21:44)
...bringing back critical information which earned him the Iron Cross for bravery and made him a bit of a legend in the military.

Jyoti Asundi (21:50)
Of course, wow!

Aarati Asundi (21:53)
Ferdinand also took part in the Siege of Paris, which was a pivotal event in the Franco-Prussian War. Prussian and German forces surrounded Paris, cutting off all supplies and essentially starved the city. During this time, Ferdinand is sitting at the German General Headquarters close to Paris and is watching how France is trying to use hot air balloons to send out carrier pigeons with messages.

Jyoti Asundi (22:19)
He's in the middle of a war, instead of focusing on war he's more focused on the hot air balloons. This is so typical. 

Aarati Asundi (22:25)
Yeah, he's sitting there with binoculars watching them send out hot air balloons. 

Jyoti Asundi (22:27)
Huh, watching the hot air balloons. 

Aarati Asundi (22:29)
Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (22:30)
Wow.

Aarati Asundi (22:31)
However, he noticed that the French always had to try and time their balloons for when the wind was blowing in the favorable direction. And even then, one wrong gust of wind and the balloon would be sent into enemy's hands. So it's very unreliable. And Ferdinand is getting frustrated just watching this, even though it's the enemy's balloons. 

Jyoti Asundi (22:53)
It's the enemy and their problems are helping you but I'm just getting frustrated looking at how incompetent you guys are.

Aarati Asundi (23:00)
Just how inefficient these balloons are. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (23:03)
Yes, how inefficient these balloons are.

Aarati Asundi (23:07)
But he was particularly inspired when the French Minister of the Interior managed to escape Paris in a balloon. Once he had once he had escaped, he took over command of the French army, prolonging the war for weeks. And Ferdinand, who is already in the mindset of like how do we make balloons more efficient and practical for warfare, saw right there the huge implications it could have.
You know, just one person escaped and this war is prolonged. So, see how many military applications balloons could have. 

Jyoti Asundi (23:40)
That's right.

Aarati Asundi (23:40)
And that again brought him back to the question of, but how do we make a balloon that people can actually navigate and isn't just blown around by the wind?

Jyoti Asundi (23:50)
That's right.

Aarati Asundi (23:51)
Once the war was over and things settled down again, Ferdinand was still mulling over this idea when he came across a pamphlet written by Heinrich von Stephan, who was a postmaster general of the North German Confederation. And he had experimented with sending mail through all sorts of modes of transportation, including balloons. In this pamphlet, Heinrich von Stephan wrote, "Providence has surrounded the entire earth with navigable air. This vast air ocean, which today still lies waste and empty, is not yet used for human transportation."

Jyoti Asundi (24:29)
Endless potential.

Aarati Asundi (24:31)
Mm-hmm. And so reading this finally gave Ferdinand the push he needed to begin drafting his first dirigible, rigid airship.

Jyoti Asundi (24:41)
Dirigible? What is... 

Aarati Asundi (24:42)
A dirigible, yeah. A dirigible is another name for a blimp or a balloon or a zeppelin.

Jyoti Asundi (24:48)
Okay. Okay. Dirigible. 

Aarati Asundi (24:50)
He knew it would have to have a long oblong shape to effectively be able to navigate through the wind currents. So kind of like a ship has this long shape

Jyoti Asundi (25:00)
He's looking at air as a big ocean also, basically looking at trying to kind transport principles of shipping into aircraft. 

Aarati Asundi (25:09)
Yeah, you have water currents, you have air currents, so you need the same kind of shape that can cut through those.

Jyoti Asundi (25:15)
Got it. 

Aarati Asundi (25:16)
And he also thought it would be most effective to have a rigid frame that created several separate balloon compartments so that you weren't trying to fill one giant balloon, but actually several smaller ones.

Jyoti Asundi (25:29)
Ha! Clever.

Aarati Asundi (25:32)
And then there would be a motor that would be attached underneath to help it fly.

Jyoti Asundi (25:37)
Yes.

Aarati Asundi (25:38)
For the next fifteen years, Ferdinand worked quietly on this project.

Jyoti Asundi (25:43)
Wow, while he's still in the military?

Aarati Asundi (25:45)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So during this time, he's quickly promoted from lieutenant to a major and then in 1882 to colonel. And although he had already earned a reputation of being very brave and modest, he didn't really enjoy as a colonel. Yeah, he doesn't like being in charge. And so once again he petitions for a transfer and got moved to the Wurttemberg Military Attache in Berlin, where he was able to meet with many scientists and engineers and actually talk to them about balloons, including the famous German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz.

Jyoti Asundi (26:21)
He's finally in the place where he's actually able to do something that he wants.

Aarati Asundi (26:26)
Yes. Then in 1884, a French military man, Colonel Charles Renard and Officer Arthur Krebs, created the first fully controlled free flight dirigible called the La France. It was one giant balloon, so not divided into compartments, and it had rigid wooden supports.

Jyoti Asundi (26:50)
Okay.

Aarati Asundi (26:51)
It successfully flew about 5 miles in 23 minutes, which is about 13 miles an hour.

Jyoti Asundi (26:56)
Pretty good.

Aarati Asundi (26:57)
However, it used electrical engines which were very heavy, and also, although it technically flew, it wouldn't actually be useful for any practical applications.

Jyoti Asundi (27:08)
Electric engines? Did they run on batteries or something? How do you supply the power?

Aarati Asundi (27:12)
I'm assuming yeah. I'm assuming it must have been batteries. Mm-hmm.

Jyoti Asundi (27:14)
They had power sources, okay, batteries, power units, whatever.

Aarati Asundi (27:19)
In the biography I was reading, it sounded like fuel combustion engines were not quite there and so they opted for electrical engines instead. But those were very heavy also, so...

Jyoti Asundi (27:29)
But hey, one step in the right direction, so we can evolve from there.

Aarati Asundi (27:35)
Yeah. So it was a big achievement. And Ferdinand wrote to the King of Wurttemberg that they had an opportunity here to outpace France's aeronautical efforts. And what they needed to do was focus on creating a dirigible that was able to navigate strong air currents, transport the weight of people, supplies, and ammunition, and travel for hours at a time.

Jyoti Asundi (27:59)
Yes.

Aarati Asundi (28:00)
This was more of a report than an actual request for funding or permission to work on the project, but he's outlined these like, you know, three key points that we need to, work on.

Jyoti Asundi (28:12)
Correct. Making it obvious is a good thing to think about.

Aarati Asundi (28:17)
Yeah, it's worth pursuing. in 1887, Ferdinand was promoted to be an ambassador to Prussia for Wurttemberg.

Jyoti Asundi (28:25)
Okay, you know, he- so he's risen from the military, he's gone all the way to the top, he's gone to the being an ambassador and everything. And this is all stuff that he doesn't really like to do. 

Aarati Asundi (28:36)
Yes.

Jyoti Asundi (28:37)
What would have happened if he was really interested in this work?

Aarati Asundi (28:41)
I know. We wouldn't have the Zeppelin. We wouldn't.

Jyoti Asundi (28:49)
Very true.

Aarati Asundi (28:50)
As an ambassador, he very strongly defended Wurttemberg's interests to the point that it actually irritated some people, because wouldn't compromise on that. Anything that, you know, maybe, hurt Wurttemberg at all or was less favorable to Wurttemberg, he wouldn't let it go.

Jyoti Asundi (29:07)
Yes. Okay.

Aarati Asundi (29:09)
Either he did a really good job and stood out that way, or he actually irritated the new emperor, William II, with his constant, you know, defense.

Jyoti Asundi (29:18)
Okay. Like "No, we are, this is our stance and we are not going to move from it. We are not going to accept any compromise. We are not going to give an inch to other side." But if you're negotiating, you do need to create a situation where both can walk away with a win. 

Aarati Asundi (29:36)
And especially if you're negotiating with an emperor. Like you can't... like the emperor is used to getting his way and you can't constantly be saying no to the emperor. But probably because he nagged the Emperor so much, the Emperor decided to promote him to brigadier general, which took him out of diplomatic service and put him back in the chain of command in the military. So the emperor's like, I don't have to deal with you.

Jyoti Asundi (30:01)
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah promote the problem upward and outwards.

Aarati Asundi (30:06)
Yes, exactly.

Jyoti Asundi (30:08)
They are not a good fit where they are, so promote them.

Aarati Asundi (30:10)
Yeah, get them out of here. And Ferdinand again was like an upper class person and he has connections everywhere, so you can't just like, you know, get rid of him. However, just one year later, Ferdinand suddenly retired. Rumor has it that the emperor forced him into retirement after some disagreement over military maneuvers. Honestly I didn't really understand, what the disagreement may have been about, but it did sound like the retirement quote unquote came as a shock to Ferdinand as well.

Jyoti Asundi (30:40)
Okay, okay, all right.

Aarati Asundi (30:42)
By this time he and his wife had a young daughter, Hella. And so Ferdinand bought a nice house in Stuttgart where they could all settle down. And so outwardly everyone was like, "Oh! That was kind of a shock retirement, very random. But he is 52 and he's settling down with his family. That's so nice." You know, that's what people are like, great. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (31:03)
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Hey, at 52, it's a good time to pursue what you really want to do.

Aarati Asundi (31:11)
Yes, but whereas people thought he was going to just like take it easy and be with his family, he is like, Well now I can actually really devote all of my time to dirigibles.

Jyoti Asundi (31:22)
This is my real cause. And I'm going to go chase that.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Grow Everything Podcast Advertisement

Aarati Asundi (32:01)
Hi everyone, Aarati here. I hope you're enjoying the podcast. If so, and you wish someone would tell your science story, I founded a science communications company called Sykom, that's S-Y-K-O-M, that can help. Sykom blends creativity with scientific accuracy to create all types of science, communications, content, including explainer videos, slide presentations, science, writing, and more. We work with academic researchers, tech companies, nonprofits, or really any scientists. To help simplify your science, check us out at sykommer.com. That's S-Y-K-O-M-M-E-R.com. Back to the story.
_______________________________________________________________________________________


Aarati Asundi (32:49)
So he hired an engineer, Theodor Kober to be his assistant, and they quietly got to work. They didn't spread around what they were doing, but when people saw them tinkering with boat propellers or heard them talking about balloons flying through the air, it just reinforced his reputation as Crazy Count Zeppelin.

Jyoti Asundi (33:08)
There goes crazy count.

Aarati Asundi (33:10)
But after three years, Ferdinand and Theodor Kober had a solid plan for building the LZ1 or Luftschiff Zeppelin 1, which translates to Airship Zeppelin 1. But at this point, money became an issue. So they have a plan, but to actually build the huge airship and a hangar needed significant investors. 

Jyoti Asundi (33:32)
That's big amount, I agree.

Aarati Asundi (33:25)
Yes. And despite his connections, he had earned this reputation of being the crazy count, so no one really wanted to take a chance on his idea.

Jyoti Asundi (33:44)
Yes. Correct. That makes good sense. It's like "God knows what he's doing." Yes.

Aarati Asundi (33:48)
He went to Emperor William II and asked him to put together a commission of scientific experts to review his plans and hopefully give it this like stamp of credibility. And the Emperor grudgingly did that, but the commission said it was unpractical and useless, and even refused to grant him patents for his design.
After two years of trying and getting nowhere with investors and the government, Ferdinand turned to the German Association of Engineers and he asked them to give his design a chance, saying, "If you decide against my inventions, if you can prove to me that I'm wrong, I should be sincerely grateful to you for showing me how and why I am wrong." The German Association of Engineers studied his plans and decided, yes, we will help you build this.

Jyoti Asundi (34:38)
Nice!

Aarati Asundi (34:38)
So they took to the press. They released this decision in the press saying that, you know, we've got this idea, we want to build this, and they urged the public to donate money. And Ferdinand himself contribute a lot of his savings. By scraping together this money in late summer of 1899 the LZ1 was finally built and in 1900 it was ready for its first flight.

Jyoti Asundi (35:03)
Nice.

Aarati Asundi (35:04)
It had an aluminum frame and was about 420 feet long and had a diameter of around 38 feet. It carried almost 400,000 cubic feet of hydrogen gas in separated balloon compartments and had a 15 horsepower motor.

Jyoti Asundi (35:22)
I would not want to be on that one. 

Aarati Asundi (35:24)
Nope.

Jyoti Asundi (35:25)
I would not want to be on that contraption.

Aarati Asundi (35:28)
No, thank you. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (35:30)
Wow.

Aarati Asundi (35:31)
This is why we're the people who sit on the side of the ice and cry while a friend fell through. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (35:35)
That's right. Did he take a ride in that first one? .

Aarati Asundi (35:39)
Yeah. 

Jyoti Asundi (35:40)
Of course, right?

Aarati Asundi (35:40)
So on July 2nd, 1900, the LZ1 made its first trial flight. Ferdinand invited the public to watch, hoping the demonstration would finally garner support for his idea and maybe lead to better financial backing. And it was actually a pretty successful demonstration. 

Jyoti Asundi (35:57)
Nice.

Aarati Asundi (35:57)
The airship rose to 1,312 feet. Traveled at a speed of about 3.5 miles an hour for about 17 minutes, and then landed safely.

Jyoti Asundi (36:08)
Nice. Not bad for a first run.

Aarati Asundi (36:11)
Not bad, yeah. And Ferdinand was also very pleased because although it wasn't super perfect, it proved that his theories were correct.

Jyoti Asundi (36:20)
!e are headed in the right direction guys!

Aarati Asundi (36:11)
Yeah. So he was shocked the next day then to read in the paper that people still had mixed opinions. It turned out that many people thought that they were going to be seeing kind of a final product and had hyped up this idea in their head that they were going to be seeing this like amazing future of air travel. And when they saw the actual demonstration, they were like, "That's it? It was so slow and it flew for like seventeen minutes and it was still getting kind of pushed around by air currents." So, you know, it's not... 

Jyoti Asundi (36:54)
Yeah, that's right. Boring. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Aarati Asundi (36:57)
Yeah, it's not very useful.

Jyoti Asundi (36:58)
Yes. Overinflated expectations. That's, that's what it is. 

Aarati Asundi (37:01)
Ha ha nice! Nice pun with the balloon.

Jyoti Asundi (37:06)
Exactly. Overinflated expectations. That's what it's all about. It the brought down the mood for zeppelin and it's that's exactly what hurts you in life as well. But every disappointment is due misstep between expectations and reality.

Aarati Asundi (37:26)
But Ferdinand was like, "Hey, all press is good press, and at least people are finally thinking seriously about this idea."

Jyoti Asundi (37:33)
And they're talking about it yeah.

Aarati Asundi (37:35)
Yeah, they're talking about it. Ferdinand did two more test flights, making improvements after each demonstration, and the public could actually see how things were getting better. On the third flight, the airship was able to actually land safely back in its hangar. 

Jyoti Asundi (37:52)
Hmm, that's a big improvement which indicates good navigation, good steering. 

Aarati Asundi (37:57)
Mm-hmm, yeah. But the big investors and the government still remained skeptical and refused to fund it further. By this time, Ferdinand's savings had almost run out, and he started to get depressed that his invention would never actually realize its full potential. He kept at it though, he gave lectures, and he kept trying to convince people to back his idea.
And again, he's very charming. He has this wonderful personality. and people are getting interested in the idea, even if they aren't quite willing to shell out money. And all of this is getting back to Emperor William II, who is starting to get worried that what if Ferdinand is actually successful in building this amazing airship, which will have all sorts of military applications?

Jyoti Asundi (38:38)
I don't have my little footprints on that. 

Aarati Asundi (38:41)
Mm-hmm. And it comes out. 

Jyoti Asundi (38:43)
Yeah. 

Aarati Asundi (38:44)
It comes out that the government didn't actually support him. 

Jyoti Asundi (38:47)
Yes and if it becomes successful I want to have my fingerprints on it. 

Aarati Asundi (38:52)
Yes. But he still doesn't really believe in the idea. So he sends a somewhat snarky, sarcastic letter to Ferdinand, saying basically, like, Congratulations on making the best airship the world has ever seen so far, which really isn't saying anything because, you know, all other airships...

Jyoti Asundi (39:11)
It's like the first one, uh-huh, weird. 

Aarati Asundi (39:12)
Yeah, it's the first one. Yeah. 

Jyoti Asundi (39:13)
Okay, whatever.

Aarati Asundi (39:15)
And he said, feel free to seek the advice of the Aeronautical Detachment of the Army anytime and here, we're gonna send you the order of the red eagle first class. So it's we support you, I guess, you know, like...

Jyoti Asundi (39:27)
Yeah, yeah. Sort of like saying I support you, but not really.

Aarati Asundi (39:32)
Yeah. And so like the actual support, which is money from the government.. 

Jyoti Asundi (39:36)
Yes, money.

Aarati Asundi (39:36)
He wasn't getting.

Jyoti Asundi (39:37)
Of course.

Aarati Asundi (39:37)
Yes, he wasn't getting funding from the government. And the Association of Engineers also backed out, saying that they didn't believe the airship could be improved upon enough for it to become practical. And even his friends are saying, you know, give it up. Good try, you know, but time to time to let go.

Jyoti Asundi (39:55)
Okay. 

Aarati Asundi (39:56)
But of course he's not going to. 

Jyoti Asundi (39:58)
No.

Aarati Asundi (39:59)
So Ferdinand appealed to the public directly himself. First saying, please help me complete my duty. This is my duty on earth, please help me. But that barely brought in like $2,000. So he was like, okay, that message didn't land. Let's try a different message. Wouldn't it be awesome to see a German dirigible at the annual World Fair in St. Louis. And that got the public excited. They were like, heck yeah, we want you German invention.

Jyoti Asundi (40:29)
Yeah. We want representation, Yeah to a worldwide audience. We want good German representation in a worldwide audience.

Aarati Asundi (40:36)
And so that brought in $12,500.

Jyoti Asundi (40:40)
Nice.

Aarati Asundi (40:42)
The King of Wurttemberg also came through, gifting Ferdinand with land and with $30,000 and Ferdinand exhausted his own savings completely, but this allowed him to start building the LZ2.
The LZ2 was completed by 1905, and it had an improved aluminum frame design and had an 85 horsepower motor. Unfortunately, though, on its first test flight on January 17, 1906, the motors failed mid-flight. Ferdinand was able to safely land in a nearby town and secured the airship, but that night a huge storm came through, and because the LZ two was not in its hangar, it had no protection, and so it was completely destroyed beyond repair.

Jyoti Asundi (41:31)
Very sad. Okay. Big setback.

Aarati Asundi (41:34)
Mm-hmm. Ferdinand sunk into despair. Once again, he's out of funds and he doesn't even have the ability to say that he made any real progress. Luckily though, the King of Wurttemberg came through for him again, giving him the funds to build the LZ3. Yeah, so the King of Wurttemberg is like, "I believe in you. This is- let's do this."
The LZ3 was better than both of the previous two designs.

Jyoti Asundi (42:01)
Okay.

Aarati Asundi (42:01)
The steering was better, and he had two wing like attachments that helped prevent air currents from pushing it off course. In October 1906 the LZ3 made two very successful test flights, traveling at speeds of up to 32 miles an hour.

Jyoti Asundi (42:17)
Double what we started with LZ1, almost double.

Aarati Asundi (42:20)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And these two flights finally started to convince people that maybe he's actually on to something.

Jyoti Asundi (42:27)
Yeah. He's not as crazy as we think he is. He's crazy, but in a good way. All right.

Aarati Asundi (42:33)
Yes. And finally the government could no longer refuse to support him.

Jyoti Asundi (42:38)
Right.

Aarati Asundi (42:39)
So the government funded the construction of a permanent huge hangar on Lake Constance for the airship and they started inviting important dignitaries to come see the LZ3 fly. They also, in official correspondence, renamed the LZ3 to the LZ1, trying to kind of erase the fact that they had not supported Ferdinand from the beginning.

Jyoti Asundi (43:02)
My goodness, my goodness, trying to rewrite history.

Aarati Asundi (43:06)
Yeah. 

Jyoti Asundi (43:07)
The little nomenclature change will just erase the fact that there were some failures and lack of funding early on. Wow, this is such clear bureaucratic thinking.

Aarati Asundi (43:20)
But Ferdinand and his little team of engineers always called it the LZ3. They were like, You cannot forget one and two. One and two are you know, paramount to how we get here. 

Jyoti Asundi (43:27)
Yes, correct. They are the foundation for where we are today. Yeah, they got us to where we are here.

Aarati Asundi (43:33)
And the Emperor sent him another letter, this time actually sincerely congratulating Ferdinand for achievement.

Jyoti Asundi (43:41)
He left out the snark.

Aarati Asundi (43:42)
Yes, he left out the snark, saying, "I recall the tireless, tenacious, and self-sacrificing labor you have expended on the brilliant creation of an airship which you have now so successfully completed despite the great difficulties and obstacles you encountered." 

Jyoti Asundi (44:00)
Including me, including obstacles created by me.

Aarati Asundi (44:04)
Yes. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (44:05)
Only a bureaucrat can be so two-faced.

Aarati Asundi (44:08)
And so Ferdinand called his bluff basically and immediately turned around and was like, "Alright, so time to put your money where your mouth is. 

Jyoti Asundi (44:16)
Absolutely good for him.

Aarati Asundi (44:17)
Yes, first, now that you've actually seen, this airship and are seeing the potential that it has for the military and you're trying to, you know, actually fund, my work now finally, first, reimburse me for all the money and work that I put into the airship that you have now decided to co opt.

Jyoti Asundi (44:37)
Correct.

Aarati Asundi (44:38)
And he got it too. He got about $125,000 as a retroactive salary.

Jyoti Asundi (44:44)
That is fantastic. Good for him, for him to ask retroactive payment. That's very good thinking on his part. I have invested personal funds. Once everything is nicely done and tied up with a bow, you're coming in to take the credit. So pay your way in.

Aarati Asundi (45:02)
Yeah. And secondly, he was like, let's start building an actual fleet of airships for the military. 

Jyoti Asundi (45:10)
Okay.

Aarati Asundi (45:11)
But the government wanted assurances that the airship could actually stay up for at least 24 hours without having to come down for fuel or supplies or anything before they funded a fleet. So Ferdinand got to work on building the LZ4. 

Jyoti Asundi (45:24)
Okay.

Aarati Asundi (45:25)
The LZ4 was a bit longer and thinner, which in the end ended up not being the best design because it couldn't resist air pressure the same way as the LZ3. But it had two 104 horsepower engines and had a small platform near the top of the ship that could be used for astronomical studies or in times of war it could be used as a platform for a machine gun.

Jyoti Asundi (45:51)
Okay. Aerial raids now.

Aarati Asundi (45:53)
Yes. They started taking the LZ4 on test runs building up to the 24 hour flight. On one long 12 hour flight, Ferdinand steered the ship further away from Lake Constance than ever before, so that people who lived in neighboring towns saw the airship for the first time. But by this time, of course, his name and his story had spread. And so when people saw the airship coming, they got really excited started yelling, "Look, a Zeppelin is coming!" And that's how we started to call the invention by the name of the inventor.

Jyoti Asundi (46:28)
Excellent! I'm glad it kind of organically got named Zeppelin by the people around him. Excellent.

Aarati Asundi (46:35)
Yes. Yeah. And I can see how this must have been like if you've never seen an airplane or a hot air balloon or any sort of air travel, seeing this massive Zeppelin float by your town must have been like this almost like a miracle to witness this.

Jyoti Asundi (46:50)
Yes, yes, this is like how we sit up at night to observe shooting stars or unique astronomical phenomenons happen, and we all sit there waiting and I can see the same level of excitement happening.

Aarati Asundi (47:04)
Yeah, yeah. This same year that Ferdinand is testing the LZ4, he also celebrated his 70th birthday.

Jyoti Asundi (47:13)
Wow. Pretty good on him.

Aarati Asundi (47:15)
He had wanted to spend a quiet day with his family, but the world had other plans.

Jyoti Asundi (47:20)
Of course.

Aarati Asundi (47:21)
Literally everyone descended on his house. There was a delegation from the city of Constance, a representative from the King of Wurttemberg, and even a delegation from the University of Tubigen where he had studied engineering when he was younger.

Jyoti Asundi (47:38)
Now that he's successful they want to... 

Aarati Asundi (47:41)
Yeah. Everyone wants a piece of him now.

Jyoti Asundi (47:43)
Absolutely.

Aarati Asundi (47:46)
Finally, on August 4th, 1908, the LZ4 left for its twenty four hour flight test. The flight didn't go perfectly and they were forced to make two short emergency landings to fix some small problems. But Ferdinand was feeling very optimistic after the flight that he truly could do a 24 hour flight without landing. So he got some mechanics to start working on repairs and was getting ready to take the airship on another flight that same afternoon when a big gust of wind hit the ship. 

Jyoti Asundi (48:19)
No.

Aarati Asundi (48:20)
And even though it was on the ground, the force of the wind lifted the ship 500 feet in the air, carried it about half a mile and then dropped it in some trees where the ship went up in flames. 

Jyoti Asundi (48:33)
Oh no!

Aarati Asundi (48:34)
Some of the mechanics who had been working on the ship were killed in the accident, and Ferdinand was devastated.

Jyoti Asundi (48:41)
Of course, oh that's terrible.

Aarati Asundi (48:43)
Yeah, it was the first time that anyone had been seriously injured, let alone killed, while making his Zeppelins.

Jyoti Asundi (48:50)
Yes. Oh that's very sad. 

Aarati Asundi (48:52)
Yeah, and he also thought for sure that this would be the end of any work on the airships.

Jyoti Asundi (48:58)
Correct. Correct. 

Aarati Asundi (48:59)
To his great surprise though, everyone around him was now fully supportive of him carrying on. Nearly as many people who had showed up for his birthday came again to extend their condolences for the lives that were lost, but also to persuade him to keep going. 

Jyoti Asundi (49:16)
Wow. 

Aarati Asundi (49:17)
And the public also rallied. Like the cutest, that I read was little children would send him their piggy bank money in the mail saying that he should use it to start building another airship. 

Jyoti Asundi (49:27)
Oh my god that is so... Oh my god that is tear-jerking story. That is so sweet, so sweet. 

Aarati Asundi (49:35)
So cute, right? Mm-hmm. 

Jyoti Asundi (49:36)
So sweet. That is so sweet. Oh my god.

Aarati Asundi (49:39)
I think it just like goes to how much it captured the people's imaginations. It's like you see this...

Jyoti Asundi (49:44)
Absolutely.

Aarati Asundi (49:46)
...Zeppelin flying by and it's like this miraculous invention and then you know, you hear about, it  went up in flames, it was a disaster and people are like, "No, you're you're on to something, keep going."

Jyoti Asundi (49:58)
And he's probably fired the imaginations of so many young kids who all want to be a zeppelin driver when they grow up.

Aarati Asundi (50:05)
Mm-hmm.

Jyoti Asundi (50:06)
Wow!

Aarati Asundi (50:07)
So within a few weeks the German people had sent him over $1.5 million dollars to construct a new airship.

Jyoti Asundi (50:13)
Wow! The next one.

Aarati Asundi (50:15)
Mm-hmm. With this money he started the Zeppelin Foundation, which still exists today. The government was also taken by that so many people immediately came running to Ferdinand's aid, which meant that they also had to throw in their support. So if- if they were looking at this as a way out... 

Jyoti Asundi (50:30)
This is, yeah, this has become bigger than we can control.

Aarati Asundi (50:38)
Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (50:39)
The people love him. The people love his ideas. The people love his inventions in spite of all these mishaps.

Aarati Asundi (50:43)
We cannot say no. And so basically, that meant that they had to green light the building of a fleet of airships. And finally, Emperor William II himself came to see the Zeppelin. He came to see the LZ3 since the LZ4 was gone. And on this visit he gave Ferdinand the order of the black eagle, which was the highest honor that he could award.

Jyoti Asundi (51:07)
Nice, I can see this 70-plus year old man being called a crazy count all his life and then all of a sudden now the accolades that he's earned already.

Aarati Asundi (51:18)
Mm-hmm. People love him now. So now things start to progress fast. He's got the support of everyone. And so he's able to found a company to construct airships military use, to carry passengers, and even for exploration expeditions. As a way of giving thanks to the German people for their support he started organizing public flights so that people all over could see his airship. When he went to Berlin to show off his airship, the Emperor himself greeted Ferdinand and allowed him to enter the carriage before he got on, which is about the highest honor ever. Yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (51:52)
Absolutely. Wow.

Aarati Asundi (51:55)
In 1910, Ferdinand took part in a small expedition to the Arctic to scope out the possibilities of using Zeppelins to explore the North Pole.

Jyoti Asundi (52:05)
Yeah, once you have a tool like that, the applications are remarkably varied. You can do so many things with it. Yes. 

Aarati Asundi (52:13)
Yeah. And I think it's worth mentioning he's 72. He's still like, you know... 

Jyoti Asundi (52:17)
And he's off to the Arctic.

Aarati Asundi (52:19)
Yeah. And finally, in 1912, the German Navy ordered their first airship for military use. Ferdinand himself commanded the flight from Berlin to Denmark and back to Berlin for this airship. Unfortunately, the following month the airship was destroyed in a storm, but the Navy promptly ordered another one. 

Jyoti Asundi (52:39)
Okay.

Aarati Asundi (52:40)
This time the Navy requested modifications to be made, creating a corridor between the two motor gondolas. Ferdinand and his engineers strongly opposed this idea, saying it would be dangerous, but the Ministry of the Navy overruled them. But sure enough, that airship was also completely destroyed when hydrogen gas built up in the corridor, just as Ferdinand and his engineers said it would, and it ignited, causing an explosion that killed the entire crew on board. Yeah, yeah. 

Jyoti Asundi (53:11)
Oh no way, no way.

Aarati Asundi (53:13)
So he is having his fair share of airship disasters, yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (53:15)
Negative...yeah, yeah these are disasters for sure. Almost like a prelude to the Hindenburg.

Aarati Asundi (53:22)
Mm-hmm. Ferdinand realized that A, the military is a pain to work with. They, you know... and B, even if they actually did listen to him, they wouldn't order enough airships to actually make the company profitable. So Ferdinand turned instead to passenger travel. But for passengers it would be more of a recreational activity than an actual mode of transportation. 

Jyoti Asundi (53:46)
Yeah, make sense. It's not there yet. Absolutely.

Aarati Asundi (53:50)
Yeah, it's too slow and you know, it doesn't actually get you from point A to point B efficiently.

Jyoti Asundi (53:55)
Yeah, better and cheaper modes This is just for fun.

Aarati Asundi (53:58)
Yeah, exactly. Ferdinand was just enjoying himself. He was often commanding the flights himself and coming up with new routes to take. So he's just having fun.

Jyoti Asundi (54:08)
What a nice life to have to be 72 at this point and just...

Aarati Asundi (54:11)
Yeah, just flying around in your airship.

Jyoti Asundi (54:15)
...steering your ship the way you want to it. Nice.

Aarati Asundi (54:18)
Yeah. In 1914, when World War I broke out, Ferdinand wanted very much again to join the war effort. 

Jyoti Asundi (54:26)
At 72, no now he is older.

Aarati Asundi (54:29)
He's like or seventy six, yeah.

Jyoti Asundi (54:29)
Good lord and he wants to- he is 76 and he wants to fight a war. 

Aarati Asundi (54:34)
Yeah, he's like, put me in. Yeah, put me in there on the front lines.

Jyoti Asundi (54:35)
He wants to join the war. Yeah I'm excited put me in World War I. Woohoo excitement!

Aarati Asundi (54:40)
Yes. But he did have to terms with the fact that he was too old really to be put on the front lines or have any use as a commander.

Jyoti Asundi (54:50)
What is that they say? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. That's what they say about it.

Aarati Asundi (54:55)
Mm-hmm. Yes. And unfortunately, he also had to come to the realization that his zeppelins were not as useful for military applications as he initially hoped. The enemy would bomb the zeppelins in their hangars where they were vulnerable. They were also vulnerable to military fire because they couldn't fly as high to avoid it.

Jyoti Asundi (55:18)
Correct. Yeah.

Aarati Asundi (55:20)
And they were very slow, like we were saying, especially when turning around, which made them really easy targets. And in the winter the engines would freeze.

Jyoti Asundi (55:30)
Yeah this is very early days. So they are neither agile, nor can they be climbing heights. They are dangerous ignitable traps. 

Aarati Asundi (55:40)
Yeah, not the best. And so the army and navy lost a huge number of airships in the early months of the war when they were trying to use it. And so Ferdinand realized that really the best chance of success was the passenger travel sector. And he was actually starting to look forward to peace being declared so that he could start building commercial airship flights.

Jyoti Asundi (56:02)
Start again! Yes.

Aarati Asundi (56:04)
And actually Ferdinand mentioned this to General von Hindenburg, after whom the Hindenburg airship was named.

Jyoti Asundi (56:11)
Ah yes!

Aarati Asundi (56:14)
Hindenburg wrote, "Count Zeppelin, too, visited us at Pless, and the touching simplicity of his manner made a profound impression on us all. Even then, he considered his airships as an antiquated weapon of warfare. In his opinion, the aeroplane and not the airship will in the future control the air." 

Jyoti Asundi (56:34)
Oh so the idea of the airplane had already started seeping in.

Aarati Asundi (56:38)
Oh yeah, so the Wright brothers had- they had already successfully their first flight in like 1906 or something. I forget. 

Jyoti Asundi (56:48)
Okay, okay. So...

Aarati Asundi (56:48)
So during World War I airplanes are starting to become developed and perfected.

Jyoti Asundi (56:55)
That era has started. I'm with you.

Aarati Asundi (56:58)
Yeah. Continuing with Hindenburg's quote, "The Count died soon after his visit, so that he was spared the misfortune of his fatherland. Fortunate man."

Jyoti Asundi (57:10)
That is the loss of Germany in World War I. Is that what he's looking at that? 

Aarati Asundi (57:13)
Correct. Yeah, correct.

Jyoti Asundi (57:15)
Okay. Okay.

Aarati Asundi (57:15)
And I think again, like, since things had always just worked out for Ferdinand, he had no reason to believe that Germany would lose the war. He was just so sure that, you know, Germany would end being on the winning side.

Jyoti Asundi (57:28)
Because he's always been on the winning side.

Aarati Asundi (57:30)
Yeah. In early 1917, Ferdinand's health began to fail, although he was still running around as energetically as ever before. Many of his friends who met him at this time said had no idea that this would be the last time they saw him. In February, he took a bad turn and he went in for a surgery for appendicitis and other intestinal troubles.
The operation was a success, but a few days later he caught pneumonia and died on March 8th. He was buried in Stuttgart with the words "Your faith has helped you" on his tombstone.

Jyoti Asundi (58:04)
Beautiful. Wow, what a remarkable scientist. And it's funny because usually we think of scientists as being very methodical and yes, they are humble and everything, but we don't think of them as these adventurous types ready for any action that comes up. Woohoo, civil war, yes, I want to be in on it. World War I, yes, I want to be in on it. So that's such a non-scientific way of looking at life. And for a scientist to have that attitude, it is a very good mindset, I think. To have this beautiful mix.

Aarati Asundi (58:42)
Yeah, and that segues really nicely into the quote that I wanted to end on. In the biography that I read by Margaret Goldsmith, she writes, "He realized before he died that one of his greatest wishes had been fulfilled. He had never really been old. He had been actively at work until the end. He had died as he had lived, a young man in spirit."

Jyoti Asundi (59:08)
Oh! That is a quote I'll take to heart. I can die young also, that means. That is wonderful. 

Aarati Asundi (59:13)
Yes, always. As long as you keep jumping around and doing what you love.

Jyoti Asundi (59:17)
And filled with curiosity, looking forward to the next adventure in life, you will die young. Oh nice. I like that so much. I think he's worth emulation. 

Aarati Asundi (59:29)
Absolutely, hundred percent.

Jyoti Asundi (59:30)
Thank you. Thank you for sharing.

Aarati Asundi (59:32)
Glad you liked it.
Thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for a story we should cover or thoughts you want to share about an episode, reach out to us at smarteapodcast.com. You can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Blue Sky @smartteapodcast, and listen to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. And leave us a rating or comment. It helps us grow. New episodes are released every other Wednesday. See you next time!