… yes they used cow gut/intestines 🐄🐄. 7 layers of cow gut where sewn onto a carrier layer of fabric to create an airtight balloon that could hold hydrogen lifting gas for some days 🎈. 50.000 cows where slaughtered for one gas-cell
Advantages over rubber of cow gut:
- rubber-cotton balloons got brittle with repeated uses with hydrogen filling. Cow gut is a flexible material that lasted longer, though expensive.
- rubber balloons can get statically charged. A small spark can flame all the hydrogen at once. Cattle gut does not charge as quickly as rubber.
Source:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbeater's_skin#Applications
- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldschlägerhaut german article mentions some more numbers data.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship#Envelope
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/zeppelins-made-out-of-cow-intestines.html
https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/ridiculous-history-nation-sacrifices-sausage-to-fight-war.htm
I couldn’t find anything on a specific pattern of the “fabric”, but what I did find was the natural glues(?) worked fine for it being airtight.
Oh, I am not doubting that there were specific patterns of this stuff, but I can’t find any references. (I have an interest in wartime engineering, s’all)