Off-game topic: Zeppelins

I would like to hear some discussion on logistics of constructing the zeppelins of WW 1. It took 250,000 cows to make one set of gasbags for one zeppelin. Germany had 15 zeppelins. I would like some ideas on the logistics of gathering up, feeding, processing, etc., all these critters in a 2 and a half year period.All the sources stand by this number, but they all seem to trace back to one or two originals. If the original is wrong, so are the current sources. Is it even possible to get 3.5 million cows in 1915-16 in german held territory? How about shortages, surplus of meat, and other unforseen consequences? I can find no record of germans being awash in beef at this time, which would have been the case if half a million tons of beef were put on the market... Any ideas?

I believe it would be possible. The german population at the time was approx. 65M. Today the average american eats 1/10 cow per year, at that same rate they would have eaten 6.5M cows per year. Butchers were required to turn in the parts of the cows slaughtered needed to make zeppelins, the logistics would be no more complicated than having collection stations and personnel responsible for transport and delivery of collections. In a national emergency I imagine a one time slaughter of a million cows(maybe 7-10% of total cows?) would be deemed acceptable, it wouldn't necessarily mean a glut of beef on the market either if they were simply killed and only the intestines taken for the zeppelins. I don't see collecting 3.5M cows over a period of 2.5 years as being extremely difficult since each year some of the cow population gets replaced by births.

Perhaps Germany used some cows from Belgium and conquered areas of France and Russia. And they could have imported some from their allies. I've done no research but I see no reason why these couldn't be possibilities.

I must say, and I mean it as a compliment, that this is one of the most surreal topics I've seen on this forum.

It is kind of a strange topic isn't it? That's ok, I thought it was interesting and had to had to do some reading about it.

I love it. More topics like this please.

When you consider that my country of Australia has more sheep than people, I don't think anyone is baaaaaa-rking mad to assume that the Germans could achieve such a feat

Well, I did some research too It seems Germans today have 13 million heads of cattle, largest stock in Europe, which attributes 25% of their total agricultural production. Considering that modern methods allow for more livestock and the population has grown, it must 've been much less back then. On the other hand, Germany was not less of an agricultural country back in the 1910s (rather more) and it had some rural areas in East Prussia as well as occupied territories and allies in central Europe that were heavily agricultural-based economies. So it seems reasonable they had a large enough population of cattle to easily gather such numbers.

Very interesting thoughts and ideas! One thing I was wondering is if this amount of intestines could be processed before each batch spoiled. maybe each butcher was required to process all the material from all the cattle he butchered? That would have reduced the logistics of moving so many cattle to a central processing station... Also, i know that it caused enough of a shortage in sausage casings, that making sausage was forbidden for the remainder of the war. Hard to imagine German food without the various sausages and wursts! I'll try to do some more research on this also. Thank you all for your interest and input!

As I am from the south I must wonder if the germans would have been better off if they had used chitlens the zeppelins may have flown better. For that matter buffo also have wings. Just a thought. Someone had to say it.

ROFL!! Good one. I also wonder then, when the Hindenberg went up in flames, wouldn't that have made a fine pile of chitlins? They shoulda brung greens and grits to that shindig!

There is a few companies out there that are using submarine type systems for taking blimps to the next potential. Here is an article about it www.treehugger.com/aviation/behold-airship-really-reborn