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May 15, 2015 4:00pm by David Farrar

The Hindenburg

Came across this video. Very chilling.

Amazingly not everyone on board died. 35 died and 62 lived.

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Comments (24)

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burt

Labour say National to blame for Hindenburg !
19 2
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May 15, 2015 4:03pm
mikenmild

burt says union officials responsible for Hindenburg disaster.
3 13
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May 15, 2015 4:08pm
thedavincimode

When I saw the headline I thought perhaps liebour was re-branding.

bitchy milky; bitchy 😆
9 1
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May 15, 2015 4:11pm
Jack5

And some want people to drive cars that run on hydrogen?
6 3
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May 15, 2015 4:11pm
thedavincimode

… at least it wasn’t Key’s fault … yet.
5 1
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May 15, 2015 4:13pm
Brigitte

@Jack5

The hydrogen was actually relatively safe (it burns to water). The lack of lift was an issue. The flames were from the cladding that held the hydrogen not the hydrogen itself. A hydrogen powered car would almost certainly be less dangerous than a petrol powered one.
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May 15, 2015 4:28pm
MCos

As I recall, Jack 5, petrol is quite flammable.
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May 15, 2015 4:36pm
big bruv

Jack5

Yes, that hydrogen is dangerous. I hear that it can ignite almost as fast as petrol.
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May 15, 2015 4:38pm
Colville

Hydrogen is many many times more flammable than petrol.
Energy required to ignite H2 is 1/10th that of petrol , a static spark will ignte H2 which it wont for petrol.

You would NOT use your mobile phone around a H2 spill !
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May 15, 2015 4:49pm
srylands

Jack5 you are confusing two things. Hydrogen is zero emissions. It only produces water as it combuusts. But it is highly dangerous because it combuusts in air across a wide range of temperatures and concentrations. It ignites and explodes MUCH more easily than petrol.
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May 15, 2015 5:00pm
srylands

Sorry that last comment should have been directed to Brigitte
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May 15, 2015 5:02pm
Inthisdress

Although unstable, it is a bit of a myth that hydrogen was the culprit.
The skin of the Hindenburg was coated with flammable material and if you watch you will see that is what burns. If Hydrogen had been that flammable it would have gone up instantaneously in a ball of (probably orange) flame.
Although some might suggest a bomb (anti-nazi protest) caused it -it was probably static sparking that was not properly earthed that caused it.

Anyway, when I saw it this time I thought it was DPF’s comment on Labour’s latest policy gaffe.
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May 15, 2015 5:02pm
Ed Snack

Unlike petrol though, H2 can *spontaneously* combust (and H2 burns fast enough to call that an explosion) in air at standard temperatures and pressures. H2 has the highest flammability rating available.

So in bulk, H2 can be considerably more dangerous than petrol. A lot of spilled petrol = dangerous if ignited; a lot of H2 released = dangerous !

There’s quite a bit of infrastructure that has evolved to produce and use H2 and large scales in industry, so it can be treated with a fair degree of safety, but it does require a lot of precautions. And it can’t be easily contained, H2 will leak from anything because of the extremely small molecular size.
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May 15, 2015 5:05pm
David Garrett

What interests me are the frames bending, melting and collapsing, very quickly…I seem to remember they were made of some metal with a very very high melting point…Put me in mind of those conspiracy theorists who are always telling us the collapse of the twin towers was impossible because the temperature of burning jet fuel wasn’t hot enough..
9 1
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May 15, 2015 5:16pm
mikenmild

I’d expect Ugly or EAD to come along at any moment and tell us the REAL story behind the Hindenburg disaster…
5 1
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May 15, 2015 5:18pm
Swifty

I remember my science master allowing me to conduct the hydrogen pop test at college. Scary.
3 0
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May 15, 2015 5:28pm
Jack5

Brigitte posted at 4.38:

The hydrogen was actually relatively safe (it burns to water). The lack of lift was an issue. The flames were from the cladding that held the hydrogen not the hydrogen itself.

That’s rubbish, Brigitte.

Here’s something from an authoritative web site:

Almost 80 years of research and scientific tests support the same conclusion reached by the original German and American accident investigations in 1937: It seems clear that the Hindenburg disaster was caused by an electrostatic discharge (i.e., a spark) that ignited leaking hydrogen.

AND

One thing is clear: the disaster had nothing to do with the zeppelin’s fabric covering. Hindenburg was just one of many hydrogen airships destroyed by fire because of their flammable lifting gas, and suggestions about the alleged flammability of the ship’s outer covering have been repeatedly debunked. The simple truth is that Hindenburg was destroyed in 32 seconds because it was inflated with hydrogen.

The very good site these quotes are from:

http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/disaster
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May 15, 2015 5:31pm
rangitoto

“And it can’t be easily contained, H2 will leak from anything because of the extremely small molecular size.”

Yep. Hydrogen gas stored under pressure will leak through the walls of a steel pressure tank. The hydrogen molecules just work their way through the metal lattice. In the Haber process used to make ammonia, the reaction vessel is double skinned to allow recovery of the hydrogen that leaks out.
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May 15, 2015 5:35pm
SGA

David Garrett at 5:16 pm

What interests me are the frames bending, melting and collapsing, very quickly…I seem to remember they were made of some metal with a very very high melting point

Frames were made of duralumin (alloy – 90% aluminium) because they needed to be light, but the melting point is a modest 650oC (steel’s about double that).
Add – from memory, the Brits at the Falklands found that the light weight of aluminium had it’s downside when the action got hot (as it were).
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May 15, 2015 5:46pm
Fletch

I remember seeing a 3D image a long time ago (I can’t find it now) of some German soldiers standing around the man-shaped impression of their commander on the ground – him having fallen from the balloon. It was strangely almost comical, like one of those old Warner cartoons. You couldn’t actually decide what the expression on their faces was.
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May 15, 2015 6:13pm
Inthisdress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBN3xfGrx_U

this guy tried to make a safe suit for pilots, and went to test it. On the day, he wanted to back out, but the President/Emperor was there and said he wanted to watch the test, so he was obliged to jump.

He made an indentation.
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May 15, 2015 6:35pm
Inandout

The Germans were slow to realise that helium was the gas of choice.
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May 15, 2015 9:09pm
Sponge

Inandout @9:09

No they knew very well that helium was the way to go. Their problem was that they couldn’t manufacture sufficient quantities of it and the US would not sell enough to them as they considered the Zeppelins a potential threat to mainland USA.
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May 15, 2015 9:29pm
metcalph

The Germans were slow to realise that helium was the gas of choice.

At the time of the disaster, they knew it. But only the States had Helium in sufficient quanities and Helium couldn’t be exported outside the US.

In any event, the Zeppelins were doomed to obsolescence even if the Hindenburg hadn’t been destroyed. In the words of Steling Archer “Planes? You win”.
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May 15, 2015 9:30pm

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