Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Courtesy of Technical World Magazine
Taken: 1912
Caption: The menacing airship in the construction pit at San Diego, California
Additional Description: This photo, originally published in the March, 1912 edition of Technical World Magazine, shows the starboard bow of Tolliver's last airship venture. The propellor and acid tanks are in the right foreground. Note the close proximity of the houses in the background. The accompanying article, entitled "Airship Menaces Homes," read:
"Because of his failure to remove a 250-foot airship from a residential neighborhood in San Diego, Cal., the inventor, C. H. Tolliver, is awaiting trial on the charge of failing to abate a nuisance. Health Officer Meade declared that the vast amount of hydrogen gas in the dirigible was sufficient to blow up all the buildings in the vicinity if ignited. Meanwhile the airship refuses to fly, the danger of deflating it is too great to be feasible and the cost of engaging other balloons to remove it is so great that the inventor declares that he is unable to pay."
Submitted: June 17, 2009.
Database Locator Identification Number: p67470
File Size: 0.034 Megabytes

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