What Caused the Hindenburg ExplosionEssay title: What Caused the Hindenburg ExplosionThe Hindenburg was a luxury airship, from nazi Germany. This “Titanic of the skies” (no pun intended) was destroyed by a flash fire in 1937 while landing in New Jersey after making its 10th transatlantic crossing. Thirty-five of the 97 people aboard and one ground crew member were killed when the blimp burst into flames and was rapidly consumed by the fire.
The Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen gas which is lighter than air. The gas was stored in sixteen large gas cells inside the ship. Like all gases, hydrogen expands when heated. If the hydrogen gas in the Hindenburg were to overheat, the gas could expand enough to burst the gas cells and send the ship plummeting to earth. The Hindenburgs engineers knew about this potential danger and came up with a solution to the problem; they painted the surface of the airship with a chemical “doping compound” that contained powdered aluminum and iron oxide. This compound was chosen because it did a good job of reflecting the rays of the sun, therefore ensuring that the gas cells inside the ship would not overheat.
There have been three main theories as to what happened to cause such a disaster. The official story has always been that the Hindenburg disaster was caused by the ignition of the flammable hydrogen gas used to lift the zeppelin. This has been over and over proven to be incorrect because witnesses of the explosion proclaim that it was like a fire works display, ummm hydrogen burns without color…. Even pictures depicting the explosion show that the blaze from it contains pigment!
The second theory is that the cause of the explosion was an electrical conductor. The “doping compound” that was used to prevent the hydrogen from heating up was extremely flammable. On the night before the Hindenburg was landing their was an electrical storm, and the surface of the ship became electrically charged. Engineers had already planned for this however, they attached mooring lines, ropes, that would go down to the ground and take the static charge to the ground with them as the ship landed. There were, however, panels that remained charged. Eventually, this built-up electricity inside the remaining panels took the form of a spark. Since the charged panels were covered with the doping compounds highly reactive metal powders, this spark caused them
The hydrogen in the hydrogen was to be used to make explosives. The hydrogen should be ignited at 1000°C (2,000°C) and then poured into a steam vessel. If there was a hydrogen release due to a sudden electrical explosion, it would be very toxic after this. The reaction was extremely powerful, as one can see in the photo. The hydrogen had in it the hydrogen chloride and oxygen which were the main ingredients for the hydrogen explosion.
On September 22, 1927 the ship became an accident and was sunk by a submarine while engaged in sea-building. The steam turbines at the time (and they were located near the center of the ship at the beginning) were already damaged. The engine stopped working after the first test and, although the reaction was successful, the ship was in an extremely precarious state and no one could get out, so the captain refused to go out alone. At that time, the crew were all working together around a bridge-edge of a large reef which, like the other reef houses, had never been used. On September 23, 1927 a submarine entered the ship and sank the ship after nearly two hours.
However, the crew was not alone. The captain himself was very happy to have come ashore again on his final visit to India, where the crew saw the wreckage of the vessel. He also recalled the “stunning sight” of the sinking of the ship.
In addition, there must have been some sabotage that affected the water. As one can see, while most of the crew was in the bridge-side port, the engineers were still working on the power systems of the ship. Once the bridge became submerged, the rest of the crew started to look outside for any way out of the ship. Some of the engineers took an old hand saw to see if they could spot any signs of damage. And there we find it:
While some of the two-legged crew had been taken out of water, one found a little-known object in front of them:
As you can see, some of the crew were carrying little containers along with some containers of various kinds. These looked like some kind of giant container on a small ship but you can’t tell if the containers were used for the fuel or the weapons. In any case, the crew saw it as an object that resembled a large container with the words “Hindu India” on it.
After looking around a few times, one couldn’t help but hear the voices of the people coming back from the water after the ship sank. And it was pretty much the sound of water.