for the Le Rossignols, safe in the quiet backwaters of the UK
5 and financially
comfortable enough (potentially at least) to ‘ride out’ the travails of the UK
economy, events in Germany would have had little effect upon them.
6 But
they were to cause Robert’s financial arrangements to suffer, and of course in
the long term the rise of National Socialism in Germany was to touch millions of families across Europe—including the Le Rossignols. On the credit
side, one of the ‘crippling psychological’ effects the war had on some
industrialists in Britain was to never again permit themselves to be dependent
upon German science, and this quickly led to the creation of an institution
which gave Robert employment for the rest of his working life. But on his
immediate return to the UK and ‘in between jobs’, he seems to have found
time to indulge himself by filing another patent, this time curiously enough,
regarding ‘airships’.
15.2 Improvements Relating to Airships
Of all the patents Robert submitted during his professional life, (Appendix F)
either independently or on behalf of others, there is one which seems to hold
little connection to the ‘day job’, but never-the-less the problem it addressed
still has resonance today. The provisional specification, titled Improvements
relating to Airships, was submitted in the UK on 07 May 1919 (UK Pat.
No. 148,008). The complete specification was submitted by 04 December
1919 and accepted on 29 July the following year.
Now history has not recorded the reason for Robert’s interest in airships.
Maybe there was a ‘boys own’ element involved. Could it have been
H. G. Wells’ novel of 1907, The War in the Air, when German aerial forces,
consisting of airships and ‘Drachenflieger’,
7 attempt to seize control of the air
before the Americans could build a large-scale aerial Armada? Alternatively,
his imagination may have been fired by the German Zeppelin attacks on the
UK during the war. The first attack on the UK mainland was in January 1915
but by October 1915, raids began involving ‘squadrons’ of Zeppelins, as in
Wells’ book. These lumbering machines were the terror weapons of their day
and although filled with hydrogen gas, they were not as easily destroyed as
one might have thought, the British taking some years to develop special
incendiary bullets to pierce the gas bags and inflame the hydrogen. Certainly,
Zeppelins were awesome iconic machines, but ever the practical man, it is
more likely that Robert’s interest was driven by aspects of safety and cost.
8
Crossing large areas of the globe, such as the Atlantic, in ocean liners was
slow. But with the advent of the airship, or ‘dirigible’, (meaning able to be
15 The Post-war Years 1919–1930
321
5 and financially
comfortable enough (potentially at least) to ‘ride out’ the travails of the UK
economy, events in Germany would have had little effect upon them.
6 But
they were to cause Robert’s financial arrangements to suffer, and of course in
the long term the rise of National Socialism in Germany was to touch millions of families across Europe—including the Le Rossignols. On the credit
side, one of the ‘crippling psychological’ effects the war had on some
industrialists in Britain was to never again permit themselves to be dependent
upon German science, and this quickly led to the creation of an institution
which gave Robert employment for the rest of his working life. But on his
immediate return to the UK and ‘in between jobs’, he seems to have found
time to indulge himself by filing another patent, this time curiously enough,
regarding ‘airships’.
15.2 Improvements Relating to Airships
Of all the patents Robert submitted during his professional life, (Appendix F)
either independently or on behalf of others, there is one which seems to hold
little connection to the ‘day job’, but never-the-less the problem it addressed
still has resonance today. The provisional specification, titled Improvements
relating to Airships, was submitted in the UK on 07 May 1919 (UK Pat.
No. 148,008). The complete specification was submitted by 04 December
1919 and accepted on 29 July the following year.
Now history has not recorded the reason for Robert’s interest in airships.
Maybe there was a ‘boys own’ element involved. Could it have been
H. G. Wells’ novel of 1907, The War in the Air, when German aerial forces,
consisting of airships and ‘Drachenflieger’,
7 attempt to seize control of the air
before the Americans could build a large-scale aerial Armada? Alternatively,
his imagination may have been fired by the German Zeppelin attacks on the
UK during the war. The first attack on the UK mainland was in January 1915
but by October 1915, raids began involving ‘squadrons’ of Zeppelins, as in
Wells’ book. These lumbering machines were the terror weapons of their day
and although filled with hydrogen gas, they were not as easily destroyed as
one might have thought, the British taking some years to develop special
incendiary bullets to pierce the gas bags and inflame the hydrogen. Certainly,
Zeppelins were awesome iconic machines, but ever the practical man, it is
more likely that Robert’s interest was driven by aspects of safety and cost.
8
Crossing large areas of the globe, such as the Atlantic, in ocean liners was
slow. But with the advent of the airship, or ‘dirigible’, (meaning able to be
15 The Post-war Years 1919–1930
321