1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,840 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle bomb here. World War One wasn't 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:15,520 Speaker 1: just ground combat. The submarine surreptitiously navigated under water, and 4 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:19,079 Speaker 1: the skies buzzed with planes from which soldiers fired guns 5 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:23,320 Speaker 1: and dropped bombs. Another airborne war machine was developed at 6 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: this time too, but has since vanished from contemporary combat. 7 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: Zeppelin Zeppelin's were intimidating to behold. These massive cylindrical balloons 8 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: were built with metal skeletons and filled with hydrogen to 9 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:41,080 Speaker 1: stay aloft. Their skeletons and rudders allowed them to be 10 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:44,560 Speaker 1: steered into and out of enemy territory, and they crept 11 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:48,279 Speaker 1: along in night skies, their heavy hum announcing the presence 12 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: of oncoming bomb raids. Germany was confident that zeppelin lead 13 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: raids would give them an advantage in the war. This 14 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: wasn't exactly the case, though. There wasn't much precision in 15 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:04,319 Speaker 1: airstrike efforts this early on in flight history, and Zeppelins 16 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: were more effective in their fright factor. They were hugely menacing, 17 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:14,119 Speaker 1: but where they really helped was in supply and soldier transport. Additionally, 18 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: their elevated vantage point aided submarine detection and allowed them 19 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: to act as an overhead bodyguard for troops moving along 20 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 1: the ground. Throughout World War One, Germany's a hundred and 21 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: forty Zeppelins or responsible for just one thousand, five hundred deaths. 22 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 1: You could argue that they wreaked more havoc in the 23 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:35,039 Speaker 1: kitchen than in the skies. Early Zeppelins were constructed internally 24 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 1: from rubber, but engineers soon discovered that the most effective 25 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:42,800 Speaker 1: material for encase in hydrogen was gold beaters skin. That 26 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: is to say, that's here's some insight into this unique material. 27 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: The cows and pestons sourced from butchers in Germany and 28 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: German occupied territories like Austria, Poland and northern France, were 29 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: washed and skinned of their external membranes. Then they were 30 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: bathed in galine mixture and stretched to dry. The resulting 31 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,560 Speaker 1: product was called gold beaters skin, named so because it 32 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: was originally used by jewelers in hammering out a piece 33 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: of gold into super thin gold leaf. They would sandwich 34 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: a sheet of gold in the pliable but sturdy material 35 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: and hammer away. But zeppelin engineers found another use for it. 36 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:23,959 Speaker 1: If the skin was moistened again and the pieces were 37 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: patchworked together into large sheets. They would dry with air 38 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,079 Speaker 1: tight seals. No other material of the time, including the 39 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 1: rubber of the day, could be so tightly sealed, and 40 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 1: that tight seal was imperative. Hydrogen is the most lightweight 41 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: element and can easily escape containment. The gold beater skin 42 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 1: was worked into a bag shape and filled with hydrogen. 43 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: Those bags allowed zeppelin's to float weightlessly in the sky. 44 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,000 Speaker 1: If you're thinking that you'd need a ton of guts 45 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:54,360 Speaker 1: to make a big enough skin bag to fill a 46 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 1: zeppelin's mighty frame, you'd be absolutely right. On average, it 47 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: took two d and housing cows intestines to create a 48 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: single zeppelin. That's why kitchens suffered Germany, known as the 49 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,960 Speaker 1: Land of Beer and Brockworst, banned sausage making during World 50 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:13,720 Speaker 1: War One to preserve all of the cow intestines that 51 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: would have been used for sausage casings. The Kaiser's agents 52 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: monitored butchers to ensure that they were handing over all 53 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,799 Speaker 1: of their cow intestines for zeppelin construction, leaving behind nothing 54 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,919 Speaker 1: to use a sausage casing. While Germans and those living 55 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: in German occupied territories brewed their sausage. The opposing forces 56 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: rapped their brains over how to bring down the airships. 57 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: In a documentary titled Attack of the Zeppelin's, University of 58 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: Cambridge engineer Dr Hugh Hunt explains that there's not much 59 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: surviving information on how zeppelins were constructed or how they 60 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 1: were deconstructed, that is, shot down. It wasn't exactly like 61 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:54,560 Speaker 1: popping a balloon. A bullet could produce a hole in 62 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: the zeppelin, but that wouldn't sink the ship. Towards the 63 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,040 Speaker 1: end of the war, the British devised a method of 64 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 1: spraying the Zeppelins with bullets and then firing phosphorus containing 65 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: incendiary bullets that, in contact with the hydrogen within, created 66 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: an explosion. The hearth always suffers as much as the 67 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: home front in wartime. But why deprived countrymen of their sausage? 68 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: Why single out cow intestines for a zeppelin construction. We 69 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: spoke with Taylor Hudnall and Alexandria, Virginia based butcher and chef, 70 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: who explains that cows cuts are bigger than other animals 71 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: and testines. A standard sausage sold in a Northern Virginia 72 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: butcher shop measures one point five inches that's about four 73 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 1: centimeters in diameter, and is encased by pig intestines, which 74 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:42,640 Speaker 1: are truer to that dimension. Hudnall explains that butchers prepare 75 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: intestines for use by cleaning them of debris and packing 76 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 1: them in salt water or dry salt, then flushing them 77 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,279 Speaker 1: with cold, clear water before they're stuffed with seasoned ground 78 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:55,719 Speaker 1: meat to make sausages. These days, there are artificial casings 79 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: made of collagen or cellulose so that you can enjoy 80 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 1: sausages without employing into Austin's. And of course you can 81 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,479 Speaker 1: just make the seasoned ground meat without stuffing it into 82 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:08,960 Speaker 1: any casing. And furthermore, modern manufacturing technology allows for the 83 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 1: creation of products like some hot dogs that are molded 84 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: and don't have any casing at all on the final product. 85 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 1: But casings, and particularly natural casings made from intestines, provide 86 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,800 Speaker 1: product stability if you're going to save smoke or age 87 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: the sausage, plus a pleasurable bite. If you've ever had 88 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: a sausage with a really good snap when you bite 89 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 1: into it, that's from the casing. None of these types 90 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:35,359 Speaker 1: of casings add much, if any, flavor to the sausage. 91 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: It's more of a texture thing. Hudnall explained that as 92 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: a butchery practice, quote, casing is a good way to 93 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,520 Speaker 1: use up a wasted part. Anytime you're using organs, you're 94 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: doing the animal a good service. There's less waste. So 95 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:54,800 Speaker 1: we asked, are there other good uses for intestines. Hudnall said, well, 96 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,760 Speaker 1: they're hermetically sealed containers and make good water balloons, which 97 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:08,240 Speaker 1: was precisely the logict that influenced Zeppelin construction. Today's episode 98 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:10,680 Speaker 1: was written by Candice Gibson and produced by Tyler Clang. 99 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:13,080 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other buoyant topics, 100 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:15,440 Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a 101 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. Or more podcasts my heart 102 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:20,680 Speaker 1: Radio visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 103 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.