Show WHY DID THE hindenburg CRASH cause Is still uncertain though use of helium would have prevented it but uncle sam owns all the helium by WILLIAM C UTLEY SPHERE HERE must be no more Tf i flying lying with hydrogen we must make an about face we must use helium thus spoke dr hugo eckener he who is known as the worlds greatest authority on lighter than a I 1 r craft after being informed that germanys germanas Germ anys proud hindenburg had crashed spectacularly upon c completing 0 m her maiden 1937 atlantic crossing at lakehurst N J there have been several theories advanced as possible causes of the disaster but no one is yet sure which is the correct one and it is doubtful if anyone ever will be sabotage was suggested merely that no possibility be overlooked and immediately rejected it might have been static electricity which set off the highly explosive hydrogen gas all aircraft are ap apt t to accumulate it especially y when flying through or near a thunderstorm der storm but this seems unlikely in the case of the hindenburg tor for her ground lines had been down three minutes before the crash and presumably su all charges of static electricity would have passed into the earth spontaneous combustion another theory more complicated than the others was that of prof otto stern stem of carnegie institute of technology and formerly connected with the zeppelin works in germany professor stern expressed wonderment that the accident had not happened sooner due to peculiar action of the proton of the hydrogen atom the hydrogen proton he explained pla ined is charged with positive electricity which is offset by a ee charge of negative electricity in the electron which covers the proton like a shell when the gas is leaking under pressure many of the protons lose their electrons and race madly about seeking new ones this causes spontaneous combustion so rapidly did the flames engulf the tha ship the versions of witnesses as to the cause were varied fire swept from one end of the hindenburg to the other in 32 seconds several insisted however the rear port engine was throwing sparks ir from orn its exhaust as the ship came to the mooring mast the theory considered most probable at the time of this writing Is that these sparks whipped by the wind per haps h a p s ignited hydrogen being out as the ship came down it is customary to valve gas in landing whether one of the conditions cited in this brief review was the cause of the explosion or whether the true cause has not yet ev even been suggested one thing Is certain an explosion of the highly inflammable hydrogen gas wrecked the airship arid and no such explosion could have occurred had the hin denburg been filled with inert noninflammable helium gas thereby hangs a tale the germans are the only nation which hay had continued to make progress with lighter than air craft the united states abandoned it when a series of dirigible crashes culminated in the loss of the macon off point sur california february 12 1934 great britain said no more dirigible st when the crashed october 4 1930 with 46 on board including prominent ministers at beauvais france france forsook airships when the demude disappeared december 21 1823 presumably having been destroyed by lightning over the mediterranean V U 8 owns omis all helium but the hindenburg accident has convinced the germans that they can no longer operate their ships with hydrogen and where are t they hey to obtain helium the united states has a monopoly on all the worlds helium only in american natural gas does helium exist in sufficient quantity to extract and fill airships I 1 MJ 0 employees of the united states bureau of mines at work in the cryogenic laboratory where research data necessary for helium production and purification are developed on the present basis our government Is not permitting other nations to buy its helium despite the fact that our navy is without airships to use it the only airship we have hava left the los angeles which germany turned over to us as part of the spoils of war is over age de commissioned and in hangar at lakehurst Lahe hurst hydrogen the lightest gas known is the most practical tor for airships except for the fact that it is also one of the most explosive things on W W A J av 1 jy T Z I 1 4 e S M dr flugo eckener zeppelin ex pert who says all airships must now be inflated with helium earth when mixed with air in the right proportion helium has not quite the lift of hydrogen but it is safe he 4 11 as helium is known by its chemical formula is described as an inert non colorless gaseous element of density sir norman lockyer was the first to discover it during the eclipse of 1868 he detected its existence in the sun it was a bright yellow line in the solar spectrum which could not be associated with the spectrum of A t IJ n h 0 iz 4 interior of the compression building of uncle sams barns helium plant a at amarillo texas each of the cylinders la in the foreground force round holds about 1 cubic feet the capacity of tho hindenburg was cubic feet feel imagine the number of cylinders it would have taken to fill the airship to capac capacity ityl any element then known he suggested the name nama for the element which Is taken from hellos belios the greek word for sun in 1895 sir william ramsay found that when the mineral was decomposed by acid it gave off a gas which would not combine with oxygen to burn further when exam examined ined by means of an electric discharge it showed a bright yellow spectral line which sir william identified with that which lockyer had found in the solar spectrum he assigned to the new element the name which lockyer had suggested f or it it germans lucky luchy in past the united states with her plenteous supply of hellum helium has used it in operating her airships but the germans have always b been e e n slightly skeptical about the american enthusiasm for the gas it is next to hydrogen the lightest gas known yet its pay load efficiency is 20 per cent less despite this fact act hydrogen costs about per 1000 cubic feet as against many times that amount for helium at that rate it cant be wasted cheerfully in maneuvering a ship up to the time of the hindenburg crash the germans had been very expert and not a little lucky in handling their many airships without losses due to fire and explosion the hindenburg was the of a noble line the tha official number of the ship was LZ of her predecessors 10 were never completed 25 were lost by storm and accident 0 6 by causes unknown 21 were dismantled 46 were wrecked by the war 11 were turned over to the allies after the bavand war and were sabotaged that they need not be surre surrendered the graf zeppelin and the los angeles are the only ones left the old graf carries on like the veteran she is her comings and goings between germany and south america hardly occasioning comment any more she landed at a t frankfort from rio de janiero the day after the disaster with 23 passengers and was wag immediately grounded indefinitely she will not take off again without hel helium lurn before the world war helium was worth hundreds of dollars per cubic foot it was obtained from minerals such as monazite and other radioactive minerals as well as the used by ramsay but it was not until wart wartime war time m e that the tha united states bureau of mines solved the problem of producing it from natural gas in quantities sufficient to inflate giant airships the victory of the bureau Is considered an epic of science the first wartime war time helium plant was at petrolia texas but the tha compressors and other apparatus for extraction were later moved to amarillo a better location hero here the government has a complete plant producing helium from a gas field which is one of the worlds richest in the inert non ble gas nazis never enthusiastic in addition farsighted far sighted uncle sam has established hellum helium reserves in just the way that he has oil reserves in the past steps have been taken to permit the sale of uncle sams helium to nazi germany to insure the safety of airship flight but germany had never been overanxious or insistent indeed one version has it that the united states offered helium to the tha zeppelin company but certain german experts considered the expense of the safer gas too great for commercial use and furthermore cited the greater lifting power of hydrogen the president has been given discretionary power to sell helium to a foreign nati nation onIt if he has tho the recommendation ommen dation of the secretaries of interior war and navy according to watson bavis director of science service to whom the wrIt writer writers erts is indebted for much ot of his information there is admittedly a war angle to this question ot ot whether america should relinquish even to a limited extent its nature given monopoly of helium but there was a growing feeling that the airship line across the atlantic should be made as safe as possible that would mean extending to germany the courtesy of hellum helium just as the navy has given them the facilities of its lakehurst airship station the only suitable landing field for airships in eastern united states 0 western newspaper union |