When Schwartz was away from home for work sometime during the 1880s, he asked his wife to send him books to pass the time and amongst those books was a mechanics textbook.
In recent years, aviation has become increasingly significant in our lives, both as a means of transportation and as a source of economy. Big chunks of metal are found soaring through the sky day in and day out, but did you know that early airships were actually made out of fabric?
It was only when David Schwartz - a quiet wood merchant from Zagreb, Croatia - designed the first completely metal airship that the idea of a flying piece of metal came to life.
When Schwartz was away from home for work sometime during the 1880s, he asked his wife to send him books to pass the time and amongst those books was a mechanics textbook.
This piqued his interest in aviation, and he started pondering: what if an airship could be entirely made out of aluminium? Like many aviation pioneers, he was mocked for his idea. The newspapers called a rigid metal airship comical, absurd, cartoonish even. But Schwartz was already long gone.
Creating a design for the ship, he showed it to the Austro-Hungarian war minister at the time. The government was interested in the merchant's work but unwilling to fund him. A military diplomat advised Schwartz to demonstrate the airship in St. Petersburg, Russia, and so, he began constructing it himself..
Industrialist Carl Berg provided him with aluminium, financially supporting him throughout the process. Unfortunately, Schwartz was unable to complete the airship's construction in St. Petersburg.
However, in 1894, Berg secured a contract with the Royal Prussian Government for an airship, crediting Schwartz as the project's designer. After years of hard work, his airship was set to fly in 1896.
However, tragedy struck. Schwartz died of cardiac arrest on 13 January 1897, shortly after he received news that his airship would be ready to take its first flight.
Some believe that Melanie, Schwartz's wife, possessed the blueprints for his design and sold them to German general Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. However, Hugo Eckener, a commander who worked with Count Zeppelin, disputed these claims:
"Count Zeppelin negotiated with Herr Berg's firm for the purchase of the aluminium for his own ship. The firm, however, was under contract to supply aluminium for airships exclusively to the Schwarz undertaking. It had to obtain release from this contract by an arrangement with Schwartz's heirs before it could deliver aluminium to Count Zeppelin. That is the origin of the legend."
Although Schwartz didn't live to see his invention come to life, he paved the way for metal aeroplanes today - his dreams have certainly reached the sky.
The article has been authored by Tejasree Kallakrinda, an intern at Deccan Chronicle
