The Lost Zeppelin Returns

Well obviously I was being overly dramatic with the title, because the Zeppelin wasn't "lost," just in storage. The box itself was designed to fit in the bed of my Ford Ranger pickup. The frame was made of 1 inch x 2 inch wood, laminated with white corrugated plastic panels and a hinged door on one end. It's wide enough to have fit both halves of the finished airframe, which itself was intended to be joined together at the flying site with couplers that join the longitudinal girders.

The main rings were made from pieces of 1/16 inch by 1/8 inch thick balsa wood, cut to form a 12-sided polygon. I had drawn a pattern onto white foamcore board for the main rings, laminated with thin plastic film. The balsa pieces were glued in place using CA glue and accelerator, each piece pinned in place. The corners where the pieces joined were reinforced with diamond-shaped gussets of 1/32 inch balsa.

The design of the framework was intended to be inspired by the method employed by the original Zeppelins, which had reinforcing wires prestressed across the polygonal main rings. For my reinforcing "wires" I used thin black sewing thread, the ends of each one tied to a map pin and stretched and laid across opposite vertices of the polygon. Once each thread was in place, I then applied CA glue and accelerator to where each end of the threads touched their corresponding gussets. Once dried, I removed the map pins and cut off the excess thread. This process was repeated for all 12 bracing threads on each main ring.

Being as I started this project in the early 2000s and accurate gram scales were harder to come by, I had to find a way to accurately weigh each component to within one gram resolution. I did this by starting with a bag of 1 gram plastic cube weights, that I had acquired a few years earlier from a science store. I made a scale similar to how a fish scale works, with gram weights on each side. Attaching an item to be weighed to one end of the scale, it would slightly tip to one side and the vertical weighted thread would cross a scale marked in one gram increments. This method enabled me to extrapolate weights to a fraction of a gram.

Using this scale, each main ring weighed about 1.5 grams when completed! I thought that was a good indicator that my design might be light enough to float lighter-than-air, yet be sturdy enough to support the loads required.

I purposefully chose a hull profile that was cylindrical, for the reason that the main rings would be the same diameter and hence make construction easier.

When my business assignment came to an end I'd only completed the middle section of the front half, three gas cell bays long. I had to build a small storage box sturdy enough to withstand being moved back home via my household goods. Once home, I continued working on the framework. To begin assembly of the main rings into a hull shape, I built it vertically, joining the vertices of each main ring with longitudinal girders of 1/8 inch by 1/16 inch balsa.

Continuing with the Zeppelin-inspired design, each rectangular panel formed by the intersection of rings and longitudinals were themselves prestressed with diagonal bracing threads, stretched and glued in place using map pins as I'd done with the rings. This design has proven to be sturdy enough to withstand 21 years of summer heat and winter cold in my brother's garage.

I should pause and explain the difference between a "non-rigid" airship and a Zeppelin-type rigid-airship. You could consider there to be two classes of airship hull: pressure airships and rigid types.

Pressure airships maintain the structural rigidity of the hull from internal pressure of the bouyant gas, assisted by internal air-filled ballonets that can be adjusted as needed. Think of the word "blimp" when referring to these.

The Norge in the Arctic

There was also a sub-category of pressure airship known as "semi-rigid," that in addition to internal gas pressure had a rigid keel attached to the bottom of the envelope, useful for attaching loads like gondolas and engines. These were used in the early 20th century for making larger craft at a time when exotic, synthetic fabrics had not yet been developed. The Italian semi-rigid airship Norge was of this type, that succeeded in flying to the North Pole, in 1926. More recently, the Zeppelin company of Germany (yes, they're still around!) developed a version called the Zeppelin NT (for New Technology) that has an internal framework of aluminum and carbon fiber girders to help support the inflated envelope.

A WW1-era rigid airship

Rigid airships, in contrast, maintain the shape of the hull against aerodynamic and aerostatic forces by a rigid hull, in the case of Zeppelins made from a framework of duralumin girders (an alloy of aluminum) and steel bracing wires. Instead of the entire volume of the hull being filled to completion with gas, the spaces between main rings contained large cylindrical balloons called gas cells. The cells were held by nets that transfered the lift from the cells to the framework. One advantage of this design is a leak in one gas cell wouldn't affect the rest of the craft, and each gas cell wasn't pressurized as was the case with blimps.

The ZMC-2 "Tin Blimp"

There was another version of rigid airship called a metal-clad airship, essentially a monocoque rigid metal gas-tight aluminum skin reinforced with internal metal girders. It was strong enough to support itself without internal gas pressure, but was pressurized for flight. One of these was built for the US Navy, the helium-filled ZMC-2, which flew from 1929 to 1941.

LZ-129 Graf Zeppelin

The most successful rigid airship was the German Graf Zeppelin, that used hydrogen lifting gas and, instead of petrol for its engines, used a gaseous fuel gas contained in separate gas cells below the lifting gas cells. The advantage of this type of fuel was as the craft burned fuel during long flights the airship didn't suffer loss of weight, which in a petrol or diesel-powered craft would have meant valving off lifting gas to remain neutrally bouyant. The Graf made many flights from Germany to Brazil, across the Atlantic to North America, explored the arctic and made a round-the-world flight in 1929. But with the destruction of the Hindenburg in 1937 (and the impending war), the rigid's days were numbered.

The LTA Research Pathfinder 1

More recently, a new rigid airship project has been in the works, called LTA Research,, funded by Google founder Sergie Brin. Its framework is made from carbon fiber and titanium and was given license to fly in October 2023. Though only half of the length of the Hindenburg, the 400-foot-long Pathfinder 1 may be superceded by much larger craft.

I last took a look at my model airship in 2012, documented in this blog article. Since then it's sat in its storage box in my brother's unheated garage, over the hot summers and cold winters. I wasn't certain if those delicate balsa and thread connections would hold up to the stress, but in my initial inspection today it seems to have held up better than I'd hoped for. But the large box and delicate model now take up space in my much smaller garage, which leads to the question of what now?

Proponents of rigid airships have often been called dreamers, with their visions of huge leviathans silently floating in the skies. While we don't know if there's a future for the rigid airship, in my case the dream was much more modest, a small model that could float and be propelled by small motors. Like those other dreamers, I still don't know what'll happen to my dream either.

October Typewriter Pop-Up at Little Bear Coffee!

So, what's a "Pop-Up?" It's a short-notice event where you show up with something -- often it's crafts people with a table or booth selling their wares, or whatever -- but in this case we're using the term to mean a small typewriter gathering in a public venue, publicized just to our contact list. We show up, we set up, we eat and/or drink, type and chat. What could be more fun?

Kevin brought his nifty Underwood Portable:



Matt brought this Montgomery Wards-branded Signature 300, made by Brother (he also brought another Brother machine):



Our friend Ian showed up with this beautiful Olympia SM7:



Here's a shot of the trio, Kevin, Matthew and myself (Ian had already left by then):



This was a very balmy October morning, unusually warm (normally by now we'd be wearing light jackets), so sitting outdoors was ideal. It was also good for not disturbing the folks inside the coffee shop with the sound of our typing. Of course, we did more talking than typing, as usually happens, but I have the habit of typing while listening, so I was able to get this one-pager written. Also, along the covered portico were plenty of tables, much easier to sit together than inside.

I also brought the Royal Mercury, in case someone showed up without a machine, or a newbie wanted to try out another machine for themselves, but I ended up leaving it in the car.

We normally schedule 3-4 public Type-In events per year, but in the intervening months it's often not enough to build a healthy social network, hence why we're starting these monthly meet-ups. We look forward to more of these in the future.

We are planning on another of these "Pop-Ups" again at Little Bear Coffee, for early November 10, but we have it scheduled for 1 PM instead of 9 AM, since by then it might actually have cooled off to the point where early morning may be uncomfortable outside. We shall see; it could be snowing! For the remainder of the year into the new year, we will have to find an indoor venue with enough room that can tolerate our noise. Oh if we only had a First Draft Book Bar like the folks in Phoenix do!

Big Blue Gets Renewed

Here I've underlined areas in this pre-repair typing sample where the letter spacing was crowded against other letters. The problem didn't seem to be consistent or present any pattern.



Steve's invoice, whose style harkens back to my TV repair days.


Here's the part Steve replaced. It's obviously an original IBM part, complete with label and part number. It's great having access to a guy who not only was factory-trained and with decades of experience, but still has on-hand original replacement parts.

When he originally restored this machine, he installed a 1.5 line spacing feature (that wasn't originally on these model 721s), and also the EXP or express backspace feature, which involved not only installing additional internal parts, but the EXP button and the L-shaped RETURN button. So this blue 721 is rather unique in having these additional features.


The keyboard now with EXP (express backspace) key and the original rectangular RETURN key now replaced with the L-shaped key.



Of course, the white correction marks do stand out on off-white paper. This is one of the things about owning the 70-series Selectrics, they may be curvy and pretty but don't have lift-off correction.

I've mentioned this before, but electric machines with soft-touch keyboards seem to draw out the typographical errors in me, partly due to my sloppy technique but also because there's less forgiveness when you inadvertently lean on the keys too hard or slightly strike an errant key, it doesn't take much of a key-throw or force to trigger the printing. For this reason, I recently increased the keyboard tension on my 6-series electric SCM machines, and now I'm much less error-prone.

So for now, I'll be mainly using white paper with this Selectric 721, to give the appearance that I'm a decent typist!

Special Collections Library Type-In

I should insert a family story here. Our grandparents had several rental houses, besides their main home at 112 Edith. There was a house on High Street that served as a boarding house during WW2. Some time in the very early 1950s an FBI agent came knocking on Grandpa's door, asking about a tenant name David Greenglass, who had rented a room at the High Street location. It turned out Greenglass was one of the Manhattan project atom bomb spies! So perhaps us kids playing "spy" at the library had more merit to it than it seemed at the time!


The most notable machine at this event was Kevin Kittle's pre-war IBM Electromatic, which he's spent considerable time and not a little bit of money on restoring, including a rebuilt motor, speed control circuit and new platen and power roller. It typed very nicely!


Kevin also brought this IBM Executive, which was a type-bar electric built concurrently with the Selectric, that features proportional spacing (using a system of five spacing units -- the space bar is divided into two halves, one for 2-unit spacing and the other for 3-unit spacing) and uses the power roller drive system with film ribbon spools.


Continuing with Kevin's collection of IBM machines was this Selectric 721, very much like my blue machine. Note the similarity in body styling with the Executive. His types even better than mine! Including an IBM Wheelwriter 2000 (not shown here), Kevin had machines from most of IBM's history.

This is Bill's SCM Electra 220, with the exciting powered carriage return! My Electra 120 is very similar except for the manual carriage return.


Matthew brought this Hermes 10, which immediately reminded me that if I'd known ahead of time, I would've brought my family's Hermes 10 also, the machine our Dad bought for us in the early 1970s. Imagine two Hermes 10s at the same Type-In! Maybe next time!


This pretty blue electric Royal Saturn, a cousin to the manual Royal Mercury (both made by Silver-Seiko in Japan), just had a newly resurfaced platen installed. Sitting in the Electric Corral next to the bigger electrics, it felt a bit overwhelmed, but eventually won over the hearts of the participants by its nearly silent operation.




It had been several years since I brought the venerable Galaxie Twelve to a Type-In, and I'd forgotten how nice these manual 6-series machines can be. This one deserves more love!


At the previous Type-In we held at the Lomo Colorado library in neighboring Rio Rancho, I brought all four of my Hermes 3000s. This time I only brought one, thinking the Cult of Hermes needs to cool its heels for a spell! Still, it was very popular, especially a member of the library staff, who swears she's gonna get one!


I also brought the Underwood 5, a gift from Ted Munk, and it was another popular machine. Several people commented one of their relatives used an Underwood 5, testamony to their ubiquity in the heyday of typewriters.


I brought the Royal KMM, via its laser-cut plywood carrying box, which once again proved its utility in protecting the machine from damage. I would advise at least a plastic bin to transport these large, standard-sized machines, to protect them in transit from dings and dents and to immobilize the carriage to protect the escapement from damage.


I also brought this Underwood-Olivetti Studio 44, in keeping with my theme of larger-sized machines. This is one of my favorite medium-to-large sized portables, I love the aesthetics and typing action, which I think are the best of the manual Olivettis.



Stay tuned for more videos on electrics and also daisywheel machines. In the meanwhile, here's the video about the SCM 6-series electrics. A big thanks to all who helped with the Type-In; our next event will be on August 3rd at the Ernie Pyle library, a small venue (at the former home of the famed WW2 journalist who died in combat), where I will feature pre-WW2 portables.

Also, here's a link to Monroe Business Systems where you can get new print wheels for your daisywheel typewriter!

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2024

Harman Direct Positive Print, Pinholio Self-Developing Pinhole Camera

The last Sunday in April is when the global pinhole photography community celebrates Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. Their website is humble enough such that they don't self-promote the fact that they've been doing this for years. I know our fellow blogger and pinhole photographer Nick Dvoracek has been involved in this for years, please check out his blog, as he's the master of handmade cardboard cameras using C-41 color negative film.

This year's WPPD fell on the day after we'd held our Rio Rancho Type-In, and I was tired from the exertion of hauling typewriters and setting up the event, so I didn't feel like loading up a film camera early that next morning, when we were to meet with our fellow New Mexico Film Photographers group at Tingley Beach in ABQ. However, I did decide to bring a Lumix micro-4/3 format digital camera with a Pinwide pinhole body cap.


The Pinwide Body Cap recesses the pinhole aperture close to the sensor

I decided to attach the Pinwide onto my Lumix GH3, which hasn't seen much use lately. Because the Pinwide recesses the pinhole aperture behind the lens mount, just in front of the sensor (but out of the way of the shutter), it produces a wider angle of view image than many other pinholes adapted to digital camera bodies. However, the major caveat with it is because the GH3's sensor lacks micro-lenses over each sensor pixel, out at the corners and edges the image is vignetted and purple-tinted. I will compensate for this in post-processing, often by desaturating the color image to black & white, and adjusting for the vignette, but ideally one would use a digital camera with micro-lenses over each pixel, like the much pricier Leica M-series digital rangefinder cameras. But you probably wouldn't spend the $7000 just to do digital pinhole.

Another artifact of using a pinhole on a digital camera is it easily shows dust and debris on the sensor itself. In this series of images, I've had to do some spotting on the images to reduce these artifacts. In fact, a pinhole is a good way to judge the cleanliness of your camera's sensor!

When I arrived at Tingley Beach the rest of the group was just arriving and setting up. Our friend Ethan Moses of Cameradactyl had brought a folding table and a box full of Pinholio self-developing pinhole cameras, loaded with Harman Direct Positive Paper.


Pinholio with pinhole cap attached and accessory chemical pour spout

The Pinholio is a 3D-printed pinhole camera from Cameradactyl that has a back that nests into the front half via a light-trap, has an internal shutter and a pinhole cap that's replaceable with a light-proof pour spout for liquid chemicals, permitting paper to be processed directly in the camerea itself.


Pinholio Innards

The Pinholio is loaded with a 2.25" (57mm) square of light-sensitive paper. It also works well with Harman's Direct Positive paper, which will produce a direct positive fiber based print with just standard developer-stop-fix black & white chemistry.


We found it best to make the exposure with the camera on its side, so the shutter will stay open easier.

Once the exposure has been made and the shutter closed, the pinhole cap can be unscrewed from the body and the pour spout cap attached. This permits the paper to be processed directly on-site!


Pour spout attached to the Pinholio


Pinholio processing! (Digital Pinhole Image)

Ethan brought enough Pinholios, preloaded with Harman paper, for the entire group to have several attempts at making a successful exposure. This was my first attempt, exposed for 1 minute and 15 seconds:



The sky was okay but foreground landscape underexposed. I'd used the Pinhole Assist app on my phone to meter the scene, but the trick to properly exposing paper media, whether negative (darkroom print) paper or direct positive reversal paper like Harman's, is the paper is mostly sensitive to UV and blue light, but light meters are sensitive to the full visual spectrum of colors. So for the next exposure I gave it more time, judged by "gut feel," as many pinholers do:



I felt this was the best Harman exposure I made this day.

I also decided to record digital pinhole exposures with the Lumix GH3 and Pinwide body cap. Here is a selection to follow. Many I've desaturated to black & white, while some I've left in color.


We were situated next to the model boat pond. (Digital Pinhole Image)


Ethan brought his self-developing 4x5 back, loaded with multigrade paper and developed using the peroxide/citric acid reversal process, which produces direct-positive prints onto standard darkroom paper. (Digital Pinhole Image)

This reversal process works as follows: 1st developer using paper developer (develops the latent negative image) (2-3 minutes); citric acid solution (prepares the image to be bleached by the peroxide) (3-4 minutes); 12% hydrogen peroxide solution (bleaches off the developed silver image) (4-5 minutes); sodium sulfite clearing bath (prevents staining) (2-3 minutes); then the paper can be brought out into the light, it should be blank white, or may have a faint positive image (white light exposes the remaining silver halides); 2nd developer using paper developer (develops the remaining positive image), the positive image will appear very rapidly (:30-1:00); rinse and dry.


This was one of the best prints of the day! (Digital Pinhole Image)


Gerson Eli is proud of his goose print! (Digital Pinhole Image)

Doggie (Digital Pinhole Image)

Ducks (Digital Pinhole Image)


Geese (Digital Pinhole Image)

Ethan in the Light (Digital Pinhole Image)


Donuts are pinholes too! (Digital Pinhole Image)


Island Tackle (Digital Pinhole Image)


Log (Digital Pinhole Image)

This was a fun, annual event. Much thanks to Ethan Moses and Becky Ramotowski for helping to setup and prepare for this event, and also to the entire NM Film Photographers group for their enthusiastic support. Perhaps next year I'll actually bring a film camera!