Moedebeck, 1898, The German Aluminum Balloon

Hermann W. L. Moedebeck. "The German Aluminum Balloon." 'Aeronautical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 5, January 1898, pp. 8, 11–15.

The article was by Captain B.F.S. Baden-Powell at the meeting of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain as follows:

I recently received a communication from Captain Moedebeck, a German artillery officer, in which he gives a very interesting account of the aluminum balloon. I daresay many of you have seen accounts of it in the papers. This balloon went up in Berlin, and apparently came down very quickly, and they say the man who was working it only saved his life by jumping out. It sounds a curious way of saving his life, but that is what the papers tell us. It seems to be very doubtful whether it was a great success or a great failure. Captain Moedebeck says it was a great succcess; I will therefore just read some extracts from his account.

Moedebeck's essay describes a balloon, of David Schwarz's design, made of sheet metal and tested in Berlin on 3 November 1897. Contra Baden-Powell's intro, Moedebeck wrote, "the trial, in fact, showed no decisive success"—but:

Success is exhibited in the sole fact that it has proved possible to construct, closely and strongly, a rigid riveted metal balloon weighing 3,565 kg., and of 3,697 cubic m. capacity, which could be sent up, and be driven forwards against a comparatively fresh breeze, even if only for a short time, in consequence of adverse circumstances.