I found a very interesting article at Wikipedia:
Mystery airships or phantom airships

It seems that in 1896-1897 there was a wave of mysterious Airship sightings across the US.
These bear a striking similarity to the 20th Century's UFO sightings, that also came in waves.
For example from the Wikipedia article:

Mystery airships or phantom airships are a class of unidentified flying objects best known from a series of newspaper reports originating in the western United States and spreading east during 1896 and 1897.[1] According to researcher Jerome Clark, airship reports were made worldwide, early as the 1880s, and late as the 1890s.[2] Mystery airship reports are seen as a cultural predecessor to modern extraterrestrial-piloted flying saucer-style UFO claims.[3]

Typical airship reports involved unidentified lights, but more detailed accounts reported ships comparable to a dirigible.[4] Reports of the alleged crewmen and pilots usually described them as human looking, although sometimes the crew claimed to be from Mars.[4] It was popularly believed that the mystery airships were the product of some genius inventor not ready to make knowledge of his creation public.[5] Thomas Edison was so widely speculated to be the mind behind the alleged airships that in 1897 he "was forced to issue a strongly worded statement" denying his responsibility.[6]

Mystery airships are unlikely to represent test flights of real human-manufactured dirigibles as no record of successful airship flights are known from the period and "it would have been impossible, not to mention irrational, to keep such a thing secret."[3] Contemporary American newspapers were more likely to print manufactured stories and hoaxes than modern ones are and newspapers often would have expected the reader to be in on the fact that the outlandish stories were hoaxes.[3] Period journalists did not seem to take airship reports very seriously, as after the major 1896-1897 flap concluded the subject was not given further investigation.[3] Instead, it was allowed to very quickly drop off the cultural radar.[3] The subject only received further attention when ufologists revived studies of the airship reports as alleged early UFO sightings.[3]

Some argued that the airship reports were genuine accounts. Steerable airships had been publicly flown in the US since the Aereon in 1863, and numerous inventors were working on airship and aircraft designs (the idea that a secretive inventor might have developed a viable craft with advanced capabilities was the focus of Jules Verne's 1886 novel Robur the Conqueror). In fact, two French army officers and engineers, Arthur Krebs and Charles Renard, had successfully flown in an electric-powered airship called the La France as early as 1885, making no fewer than seven successful flights in the craft over an eleven month period. Also during the 1896-1897 period, Bosnian inventor David Schwarz built an aluminum-skinned airship in Germany that successfully flew over Templehof before being irreparably damaged during a hard landing. Both events clearly demonstrated that the technology to build a practical airship existed during the period in question, though if reports of the capabilities of the California and Midwest airship sighted in 1896-97 are true, it would have been considerably more advanced than any airship built up to that time.

Several individuals, including Lyman Gilmore and Charles Dellschau, were later identified as possible candidates for being involved in the design and construction of the airships, although little evidence was found in support of these ideas.

And finally there was this tantalizing tidbit...

Claims of extraterrestrial origin

Early citations of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, all from 1897, include the Washington Times, which speculated that the airships were "a reconnoitering party from Mars"; and the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, which suggested of the airships, "these may be visitors from Mars, fearful, at the last, of invading the planet they have been seeking." (Jacobs, 29) In 1909, a letter printed in the Otago Daily Times (New Zealand) suggested that the mystery airship sightings then being reported in that country were due to Martian "atomic-powered spaceships." (Clark 2000, 123)

 It seems that seeing strange flying things in the skies wasn't just a 20th century thing at all.
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your eyes on the skies.
KJ

Following some airship threads out on the Aether Webs I found this site:

Small Blimps Forum
A community project to build an affordable personal airship that is accessible to anyone.
Lots of very interesting discussions, links and plans here.
Looking forward to doing a lot more reading on this one.
Check it out when you get a chance.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Oh lookie here a pedal powered personal airship!
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

The White Dwarf Flies Again!
 
What's up with the blimp?
It's the White Dwarf, built by Bill Watson and others for the comedian Gallagher in about 1984.  This beautiful and innovative pedal-powered was used by Gallagher to do a Showtime special,  Bryan Allen flew it 58 miles to set an FAI world record for that class airship, Bill and friends took it to Oshkosh, and then they put it behind Bill Watson's parents' house, where it stayed for about 14 years.
Reed Gleason had been enjoying various ways to fly, and noticed that the slower he went, the more fun it was.   He decided he wanted a blimp, and contacted Bill Arras, an acquaintance from serious hang gliding days.  Bill Arras wanted a blimp too, and set about finding out how to build a small blimp, partly by contacting people who'd built small blimps.
Bill Arras found that Bill Watson still had the WD and it was just plain going to waste.   Bill Watson figured Bill Arras, being World Champion  Hot Air Balloonist, would make sure the WD would be used for the forces of good, and Gallagher didn't want to have anything more to do with it, so it was brought to Oregon.  It sat in it's custom trailer while Bill and Reed discovered one reason why there aren't a lot more little blimps:  We couldn't find a place tall enough to fit it.  Eventually, Bill found a hangar with a 25 foot door was found at the Madras Airport, which is a delight, because the airport is large and largely unused.  And the flight service station owner Don Mobley thought the blimp was really great, made room for it in one of his hangars, and generally provided a lot of support.. So Bill and Reed moved the White Dwarf to Madras, OR, assembled and inflated it Sept. 30, 2000, and first flew it Oct.  3.
It actually worked.  It's beautiful construction is less important than the fact that it does what it was supposed to do, a rarity in small airships.  Which is to putter around very slowly with precise control, only in very light winds.
Here's some pictures courtesy of Q, a powered parachute pilot.
Three 50K jpgs.
Bill Arras added a couple of string trimmer 19cc engines with model airplane props.  With a little peddling to help, he average 10 MPH for an hour.  When he peddled hard in addition to full throttle, he got up to about 15 MPH, and then the envelope went unstable, as predicted.  Of course, the consequences of "going unstable" in the WD are a lot less significant than for most aircraft:  the nose wandered a bit and he slowed down.
Here's some pictures courtesy of Richard Tetz.  Richard Tetz himself, the engine setup, and Bill again exploring Willow Creek canyon.
 Three 200K jpgs
More pictures by Richard Tetz:   his photo page.

From the BBC: 
World's 'lightest material' unveiled by US engineers



A team of engineers claims to have created the world's lightest material.

The substance is made out of tiny hollow metallic tubes arranged into a micro-lattice - a criss-crossing diagonal pattern with small open spaces between the tubes.

The researchers say the material is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and has "extraordinarily high energy absorption" properties.

Potential uses include next-generation batteries and shock absorbers.
The research was carried out at the University of California, Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology and is published in the latest edition of Science.

"The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair," said lead author Dr Tobias Schaedler.

Low-density
The resulting material has a density of 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimetre.

By comparison the density of silica aerogels - the world's lightest solid materials - is only as low as 1.0mg per cubic cm.  The metallic micro-lattices have the edge because they consist of 99.99% air and of 0.01% solids.

A steam powered biplane first flown in 1933.
Thus proving that steam engines could be made light and powerful enough to work on heavier than air craft. Image what a steam powered airship would be able to do. Especially if the steam is also used as the lifting gas.



From the YouTube description:

A Travel Air 2000 biplane made the world's first piloted flight under steam power over Oakland, California, on 12 April 1933.
The strangest feature of the flight was its relative silence; spectators on the ground could hear the pilot when he called to them from mid-air.
The aircraft, piloted by William Besler, had been fitted with a two-cylinder, 150 hp reciprocating engine.
An important contribution to its design was made by Nathan C. Price, a former Doble Steam Motors engineer.  Price was working on high pressure compact engines for rail and road transport; the purpose of the flight was to obtain publicity for this work. Following its unexpectedly favourable reception Price went to Boeing and worked on various aviation projects, but Boeing dropped the idea of a steam aeroengine in 1936. Price later worked for Lockheed where his experience with developing compact burners for steam boilers helped to design Lockheed's first jet engine.
The advantages of the "Besler System" that were claimed at the time included the elimination of audible noise and destructive vibration; greater efficiency at low engine speeds and also at high altitudes where lower air temperatures assisted condensation; reduced likelihood of engine  failure; reduced maintenance costs; reduced fuel costs, since fuel oil was used in place of petrol; reduced fire hazard since the fuel was less volatile and operating temperatures were lower; and a lack of need for radio shielding.
For capacities in excess of 1000 horse power a turbine captures the energy released by the expansion of steam more efficiently than a piston. Thus, the steam reciprocating engine turned out to be unsuitable for scaling up to the needs of large aircraft.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

From The Boy's Book of Airships by H. Delacombe, published in 1909.
The PDF file at the link is a fascinating look at the "State of the Art" of flight in 1909.
The following poem by  H. Kemp captures the spirit of the time very well.
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

This is an advertisement for the Graf Zeppelin when she was being used for the regular trans Atlantic run to Brazil from Germany in the early 20th Century.
Why this is so cool is that at the time the only other way to fly across was a short jump from Dakar, Senegal to Pernambuco, Brazil by a Focker Trimoter. Getting all the way down to Dakar from Europe was an adventure in itself!  Large flying boats made the run from America to Europe by hopping across the North Atlantic using Labrador, Greenland and Iceland.
The Zepplin route was luxurious and stately by comparison and took only 3 days non-stop.

For more information on the great Airships check out this fantastic site:
Airships: The Graf Zeppelin, Hindenburg, U.S. Navy Airships, and other Dirigibles
There is technical information on the history, design,construction, operation and ultimate demise of the largest man-made objects ever to fly.
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Behold the Air Kraken!

Here are some old photos of Air Kraken in action:

Mark your calendars because March 17th is Air Kraken Day!
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and a good lookout!
KJ

Now this is interesting!

This site deals with the pros and cons of using steam as the lifting gas for lighter than air vehicles.

The Flying Kettle: Steam Balloons and Steam Airships

There have not been any recent updates since 2003 but it is a fun site to explore the idea of simply using steam as the lifting gas.

This page here is a general discussion of the details of using steam for generating lift.
STEAM BALLOONS AND STEAM AIRSHIPS

I can already feel the ideas beginning to bubble :-)


"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar
Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the fields of air.
Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above,
Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move;
Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd,
And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud."
--Dr. Erasmus Darwin,1731-1802

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ