WEBVTT - Why Did Germany Have to Sacrifice Sausages to Fly Zeppelins?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle bomb here. World War One wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>just ground combat. The submarine surreptitiously navigated under water, and

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<v Speaker 1>the skies buzzed with planes from which soldiers fired guns

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<v Speaker 1>and dropped bombs. Another airborne war machine was developed at

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<v Speaker 1>this time too, but has since vanished from contemporary combat.

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<v Speaker 1>Zeppelin Zeppelin's were intimidating to behold. These massive cylindrical balloons

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<v Speaker 1>were built with metal skeletons and filled with hydrogen to

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<v Speaker 1>stay aloft. Their skeletons and rudders allowed them to be

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<v Speaker 1>steered into and out of enemy territory, and they crept

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<v Speaker 1>along in night skies, their heavy hum announcing the presence

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<v Speaker 1>of oncoming bomb raids. Germany was confident that zeppelin lead

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<v Speaker 1>raids would give them an advantage in the war. This

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't exactly the case, though. There wasn't much precision in

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<v Speaker 1>airstrike efforts this early on in flight history, and Zeppelins

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<v Speaker 1>were more effective in their fright factor. They were hugely menacing,

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<v Speaker 1>but where they really helped was in supply and soldier transport. Additionally,

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<v Speaker 1>their elevated vantage point aided submarine detection and allowed them

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<v Speaker 1>to act as an overhead bodyguard for troops moving along

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<v Speaker 1>the ground. Throughout World War One, Germany's a hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>forty Zeppelins or responsible for just one thousand, five hundred deaths.

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<v Speaker 1>You could argue that they wreaked more havoc in the

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<v Speaker 1>kitchen than in the skies. Early Zeppelins were constructed internally

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<v Speaker 1>from rubber, but engineers soon discovered that the most effective

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<v Speaker 1>material for encase in hydrogen was gold beaters skin. That

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<v Speaker 1>is to say, that's here's some insight into this unique material.

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<v Speaker 1>The cows and pestons sourced from butchers in Germany and

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<v Speaker 1>German occupied territories like Austria, Poland and northern France, were

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<v Speaker 1>washed and skinned of their external membranes. Then they were

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<v Speaker 1>bathed in galine mixture and stretched to dry. The resulting

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<v Speaker 1>product was called gold beaters skin, named so because it

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<v Speaker 1>was originally used by jewelers in hammering out a piece

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<v Speaker 1>of gold into super thin gold leaf. They would sandwich

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<v Speaker 1>a sheet of gold in the pliable but sturdy material

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<v Speaker 1>and hammer away. But zeppelin engineers found another use for it.

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<v Speaker 1>If the skin was moistened again and the pieces were

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<v Speaker 1>patchworked together into large sheets. They would dry with air

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<v Speaker 1>tight seals. No other material of the time, including the

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<v Speaker 1>rubber of the day, could be so tightly sealed, and

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<v Speaker 1>that tight seal was imperative. Hydrogen is the most lightweight

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<v Speaker 1>element and can easily escape containment. The gold beater skin

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<v Speaker 1>was worked into a bag shape and filled with hydrogen.

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<v Speaker 1>Those bags allowed zeppelin's to float weightlessly in the sky.

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<v Speaker 1>If you're thinking that you'd need a ton of guts

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<v Speaker 1>to make a big enough skin bag to fill a

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<v Speaker 1>zeppelin's mighty frame, you'd be absolutely right. On average, it

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<v Speaker 1>took two d and housing cows intestines to create a

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<v Speaker 1>single zeppelin. That's why kitchens suffered Germany, known as the

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<v Speaker 1>Land of Beer and Brockworst, banned sausage making during World

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<v Speaker 1>War One to preserve all of the cow intestines that

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<v Speaker 1>would have been used for sausage casings. The Kaiser's agents

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<v Speaker 1>monitored butchers to ensure that they were handing over all

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<v Speaker 1>of their cow intestines for zeppelin construction, leaving behind nothing

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<v Speaker 1>to use a sausage casing. While Germans and those living

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<v Speaker 1>in German occupied territories brewed their sausage. The opposing forces

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<v Speaker 1>rapped their brains over how to bring down the airships.

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<v Speaker 1>In a documentary titled Attack of the Zeppelin's, University of

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<v Speaker 1>Cambridge engineer Dr Hugh Hunt explains that there's not much

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<v Speaker 1>surviving information on how zeppelins were constructed or how they

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<v Speaker 1>were deconstructed, that is, shot down. It wasn't exactly like

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<v Speaker 1>popping a balloon. A bullet could produce a hole in

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<v Speaker 1>the zeppelin, but that wouldn't sink the ship. Towards the

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<v Speaker 1>end of the war, the British devised a method of

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<v Speaker 1>spraying the Zeppelins with bullets and then firing phosphorus containing

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<v Speaker 1>incendiary bullets that, in contact with the hydrogen within, created

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<v Speaker 1>an explosion. The hearth always suffers as much as the

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<v Speaker 1>home front in wartime. But why deprived countrymen of their sausage?

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<v Speaker 1>Why single out cow intestines for a zeppelin construction. We

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<v Speaker 1>spoke with Taylor Hudnall and Alexandria, Virginia based butcher and chef,

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<v Speaker 1>who explains that cows cuts are bigger than other animals

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<v Speaker 1>and testines. A standard sausage sold in a Northern Virginia

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<v Speaker 1>butcher shop measures one point five inches that's about four

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<v Speaker 1>centimeters in diameter, and is encased by pig intestines, which

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<v Speaker 1>are truer to that dimension. Hudnall explains that butchers prepare

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<v Speaker 1>intestines for use by cleaning them of debris and packing

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<v Speaker 1>them in salt water or dry salt, then flushing them

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<v Speaker 1>with cold, clear water before they're stuffed with seasoned ground

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<v Speaker 1>meat to make sausages. These days, there are artificial casings

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<v Speaker 1>made of collagen or cellulose so that you can enjoy

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<v Speaker 1>sausages without employing into Austin's. And of course you can

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<v Speaker 1>just make the seasoned ground meat without stuffing it into

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<v Speaker 1>any casing. And furthermore, modern manufacturing technology allows for the

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<v Speaker 1>creation of products like some hot dogs that are molded

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<v Speaker 1>and don't have any casing at all on the final product.

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<v Speaker 1>But casings, and particularly natural casings made from intestines, provide

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<v Speaker 1>product stability if you're going to save smoke or age

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<v Speaker 1>the sausage, plus a pleasurable bite. If you've ever had

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<v Speaker 1>a sausage with a really good snap when you bite

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<v Speaker 1>into it, that's from the casing. None of these types

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<v Speaker 1>of casings add much, if any, flavor to the sausage.

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<v Speaker 1>It's more of a texture thing. Hudnall explained that as

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<v Speaker 1>a butchery practice, quote, casing is a good way to

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<v Speaker 1>use up a wasted part. Anytime you're using organs, you're

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<v Speaker 1>doing the animal a good service. There's less waste. So

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<v Speaker 1>we asked, are there other good uses for intestines. Hudnall said, well,

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<v Speaker 1>they're hermetically sealed containers and make good water balloons, which

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<v Speaker 1>was precisely the logict that influenced Zeppelin construction. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Candice Gibson and produced by Tyler Clang.

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<v Speaker 1>For more on this and lots of other buoyant topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a

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