Originally Posted by
Robert C
On 2 July 1900 the LZ1 was launched from its floating hanger on Lake Brodensee by the village of Manzell, near Freidrichshafen with Count Zeppelin, His friend Baron Von Bassus, and engineer Fritz Burr in the front gondola. Explorer and journalist Eugen Wolf and Gross, a mechanic, boarder the rear gondola.
No, I did not look it up in Wikipedia. I just happened to have a copy of Douglas Botting's book "Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine" sitting on my desk.
Nope! That's not it!
I was during the American Civil War, when he was a young German Army officer, and was attached to a Union Army headquarters as an observer (this was, and to some extent still is, a common practice). While on leave, he visited an experimental Union Army unit in St. Paul, MN, where the Union army was experimenting with helium balloons to lift artillery observers up over the lines to give them a higher vantage point. Zeppelin was given a ride, and from that point on was enthused over the military applications for lighter-than-air ships, but did not have the time or resources to indulge his interest until after his retirement from the army.
That's what I love about history - the connections!