Gontermann-Method and Fluent Fire

[rammjaeger]

The German ace Baeumer (43 vics) reported about one of his balloon kills that he used the Gontermann-method. That means he was using signal pistoles which were fixed on his aircraft.
How can I interprete this remark? Did somebody see photos with such an installation?

The Zeppelin-crewman Martin Dietrich reported English aircraft attacked Zeps at first with bombs and later with Fluent Fire. I could not find an explanation for this remark.
Did the Englishmen use a kind of flame thrower (???) in the air or container with a burning liquid?
Is somebody able to report other nonconventional methods a attack against balloons or Zeps?

[Vigilant]

'Fluent fire' may be this weapon that 2nd Lieutenant John Slessor (23 Sqdn) used on 13 October 1915 on L15 over London:

"[I had] a small oblong bomb full of petrol, of which three or four were carried in the cockpit.They were pushed by hand through a tube in the floor. In the tube an electrical contact lit the fuse, whereupon the bomb burst into flames and a bunch of large fish-hooks came out at the top. These, theoretically, would catch in the Zeppelin's envelope and allow the burning bomb to do the rest. It was a weapon worthy of Heath-Robinson at his best."

(For those who don't know, Heath-Robinson was a cartoonist who specialised in drawing impossibly absurd machinery held together with bits of string etc.)

I wonder if the inflammable fish-hooks ever downed a Zep?

[rammjaeger]

Many thanks!

This explanation of Fluent Fire makes sense but who downed
L15 finally and how?

Sincerely Hannes

The British tried a number of anti-Zeppelin weapons (my fave is the Davis recoil-less rifle), but to my knowledge, except for Warneford's all airships shot down by the British were downed by gunfire. (I'm going from memory here, and I could be wrong.)