Show WHY DID THE hindenburg CRASH i IL i a 1 r I 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 II 11 t t ft 1 cause Is still uncertain though use tse of helium bould have ve prevented it ii but uncle sani sam owns all the lle hu in f I 1 by WILLIAM C UTLEY 66 HERE mastbe must be no more T 1 I flying with hydrogen we must make an about face we must use helium thus ius spoke dr hugo eckener echsner Eck r he ha who Is known as the worlds greatest authority oi on aughter than a I 1 r craft after being informed ed that thal germanys germanas Germ anys proud Hindin hindenburg buri had bad trashed spectacularly upon oom corn plating her maiden 1937 atlantic crossing at lakehurst N X J there have been several theories theo ries advanced as possible causes of the disaster but la no one Is yet sure which Is the correct one and it Is doubtful it if anyone ever will be sabotage was suggested merely that no possibility be over overlooked looke d and immediately rejected t it might have been static el electricity ecar I 1 C which set oft off the highly explosive hydrogen gas AU all aircraft are apt to accumulate it especially when flying through or near a thunderstorm d der er torm storm but this se seems ems unlikely in the case of the hindenburg IUn denburg for her ground lines had bad been down wee three minutes before the crash and presumably all charges of static electricity would have passed into the jarw spontaneous combustion another theory m more ore coi complicated id tv than them the others i was s that of prof otto stern stem of carnegie institute of technology and for formerly form mirly eTly connett ed d with the zeppelin works in germany min professor iTo fessor stern expressed wonderment that the accident had not happened sooner due topete to peculiar action odthe of the proton of the hydrogen atom I 1 the hydrogen proton he ha explained io pla ined is charged with avith po positive sitivi electricity which Is offset by a charge of negative electricity j in the electron covers the I 1 proton like a shell when the gai ga Is leaking under pressure many of the protons lose their electrons and race madly about seeking new ones this caus causes es spontaneous combustion so rip rapidly toly did iha the flames engulf the ship the versions of witnesses AiA esses as to 16 the cause causa vera vere varied ore swept inept from 66 one end of the Hin hindenburg deli to the ot other herIn I 1 iri 32 seconds several insisted however the tear port engine was throwing sparks from erom its exhaust as the ship came to the mooring mast T the e theory considered most provable probable at the tune bi of this writing is that thai these sparks whipped by the wind perhaps ignited hydrogen being out ag a the ship came down aown it Is customary to valve i gas gag in langing landing wh whether ether on one e oi of th the e conditions of cited ed in thi this s brief review was as the cause of the ex explosion iloilo n 1 or whether the true tree cause has not hot yet even been suggested abne one thing is tain art aft explosion of the tha highly inflammable hydrogen gas wrecked the airship and no such explosion could have occurred had the hin denburg been filled inert noninflammable helium gas gag thereby hangs a i tate tale the germans are the only nation cation which has continued to make progress with lighter than air craft the united states abandoned it when a series ot of dirigible crashes culminated in the loss ot of the macon off point sur California february 12 1934 great britain said no more dirigible sl when the crashed october 4 1930 with 48 46 on board including prominent ministers at beauvais ovals france france forsook airships when the din nude disappeared december I 1 21 1923 presumably h having avin g been destroyed by lightning over the mediterranean IT S owns all ali hellum bellum buethe but the hindenburg accident his bis convinced the thi Germ germans ans that ahat they jair can I 1 no ho longer operate their ships with hydrogen and where iI are rethey they to obtain helium the united states has i a monopoly en delthe all the worlds hellums only in american natural gas does heli helium trai exist in quantity to extract audap airships 1 l ft f fi taff xi y ai 11 1 I 1 I 1 11 pa A it 4 W W 0 I 1 NA 1 au employees employed of the lie united states bureau of mines lit at work la in the hi cryogenic ryoe enlo bostory laboratory bor tory where research data necessary for helium product alon developed anthe on the present basis ciar our joernot overn ment is not permitting other t na eions to bayts helium 1 despite the fact that our without airships airship ii to uso use leonly iff the Te only airship we have left leff the los angeles which germany turned OV over e r to io us ui a as s part ot the spoils ofa var Is ov over e bilge age de commissioned and 9 in haribai hari gai al at lakehurst z r hydrogen the lightest gas gai kam ow is the most practical tor for airships airship except tor for the fact that it isalio ii also one ot of the most explosive things on i t ji ido 11 w tj 0 49 Y dr hugo eckener zeppelin expert who says says all airships must now be inflated with helium earth when mixed with air to in the right proportions proportion i helium has not quite the lift of hydrogen betit but it Is safe he 4 11 as helium Is known by its chemical formula is described as an inert non colorless gaseous element ot of density sir norman lockyer was the first to discover it during t the he eclipse e ot of 1868 he detected its eki existence in the sun it was A a bright yellow line linein to the solar spectrum which could not be associated with the spectrum of T 41 4 A t 1 ir s yu 1 f i Interior of the be compression bil building i iding of uncle sams gams helium hedum plant at am amarillo arillo texas each of the cylinders in the he foreground holds about abou ta ia cubic feet the capacity of the hindenburg Hinden lurg was cubic feet fee imag a gine ino the number ot of cylinders it would have taken to ao fill the airship 1 i r to I 1 capacity w t li 4 i V any 1 element then knowli 6 her sug gest edthe the name lor for the element which is taken i from hollos helios the greek word arsun or sun I 1 I 1 iw ia 1893 sir william R acsay found that when the mineral was decor decomposed by acid it gavi gave off agas agag will which ch would not combine with oxygen e in to bum further when examined by means ot of on an electric electr lc discharge it showed a bright ye yellow spectral line which sir william Iden identified tideo with that which Locky crha d found i Y f in the solar spectrum ile he assigned to the new element the name which lockyer had bid suggested lor for it it germans lucky in past the united states with he her ale plenteous n supply of helium has used it in operating her airships but tha germans germani havi have always b been a a n slightly skeptical skip ake optical about the american enthusiasm for the gas it Is next to hydrogen the lightest gas known yet ls its pay load efficiency is 20 90 pai per ce cent antless nt less Desp despite this tact fact hydrogen costs about pe per r 1000 cubic feet as against many times that amount lor for helium at that rate it cant be wasted cheerfully in maneuvering a shiy ship up io 0 o the time me of the Hinan hindenburg burg crash ahe the germans had bad been very expert and not a little lucky lucki in hand handling lini their theft many airships without losses due to fire and dad explosion the hindenburg was the ot of a noble line the official number of the ship was LZ of 01 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 wa war 11 were turned over to the allies after the war and 7 were sabotaged that they need not be surrendered the graf zeppelin and chelos 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 ahny more she landed a t frankfort from rio de janiero the day after the disaster with 23 passengers sen geris and was immediately grounded indefinitely she will not take off again without hellum helium before the world war helium was worth hundreds of dollars per cubic foot it was ats obtained from minerals such as monazite thor lanite and other radioactive minerals as well as t the b e used by ramsay but it was not until wartime war time that the united states bureau of mines solved the problem of producing it from natural gils gas in quantities sufficient to inflate giant ali airships ships the victory victori of the borod bureau is 13 considered an epic of science the first wartime war time helium plant was at texas but the compressors and other apparatus tor for extraction were later moved to amarillo a better location here the government has a complete plant plan producing helium from a gas fie field which lis is one of the worlds richest chest il in the inert non non inflammable gas nazis never enthusiastic tn in addition farsighted far sighted uncle sam hash has established helium reserves in just the iray way that he be has hai oil reserves in the past steps stepi 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 if it that the united states offered helium to the alie zeppelin iid company but cei certain taiti german experts et considered the expense of the af safer gas gag too great tor commercial a ute use sad fur furthermore thedmore ther more cited the greater lifting p power ower of hydrogen the Pies president ident has been given discretionary cre ti conary power to sell helium to a foreign nation natian it if he be has the recommendation ommen dation of the secre secretaries tarlis of interior war dvir and navy according to watson director ot of science service to whom the writer Is hr indebted for foi much of his bis information there Is admittedly a war angle to this question of whether america should relinquish even to a limited extent its nature given gien monopoly of helium but there was a growing feeling that the thi air dit shi pline across the atlantic sho should ua d be bd made a as safe as 3 possible that would w 0 uld mean extending to germany the courtesy of helium just justas as the navy has given them the fa facilities of its lakehurst airship station the wy only suitable landing field for airships in eastern united states 0 westia newspaper union |