Hindenburg

The smoking salons of the Hindenburg and other hydrogen-filled dirigibles of Ihe 1930s were insulated with urea-formaldehyde polymer foams. The structure of this polymer is highly cross-linked, like that of Bakelite (Section 31.5). Propose a structure. 

Heterogeneous Non-uniform composition, 4 catalysis, 305-306 equilibrium, 329-331 High-density lipoprotein, 603 High-spin complex A complex that, for a particular metal cation, has the largest number of unpaired electrons, 419 Hindenburg, 111... 

Prior to the fire, the Hindenburg had completed 10 round trips between the U.S. and Europe. A sister ship, the Graf Zeppelin, made regular scheduled transatlantic crossings from 1928 to 1939 with no incidents. There were 161 rigid airships that flew between 1897 and 1940, almost all of these used hydrogen and 20 were destroyed by fires. Of these 20, seventeen were lost in military action where in many cases the fires resulted from enemy fire during World War I. 

What no one seemed to realize until later was that we had been here before. In the 1920s two German scientists, Fritz Pareth and Kurt Peters, proposed that hydrogen might be converted into helium inside palladium metal. Their aim was not to create an energy source it was the helium they were after. Since the demise of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg, helium was in big demand as the buoyant gas for airships. 

The Hindenburg was the largest flying machine ever built — 804 feet long. It would have dwarfed a Jumbo 747 and was roughly the size of the Titanic. The crash Morrison described killed thirty-five of the ninety-seven people onboard, along with one crew member on the ground. Morrison s description. 

Explosive burning of the hydrogen-filled dirigible Hindenburg during landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6,1937, killed 36 of the 97 persons aboard. 

On May 6,1937, the German passenger airship the Hindenburg suddenly burst into flames while approaching its landing site in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-five people out of the 97 on board the airship died in the blaze. 

The product of this reaction is harmless, but the combustion of hydrogen is quite explosive. Airships during the 1930s, like the Hindenburg, were filled with hydrogen because the gas is lighter than air. Unfortunately, it is also highly flammable. 

The Hindenburg Disaster Titanic of the Sky. Vidicom Media Productions. Available online. URL http //www.vidicom-tv. com/tohiburg.htm. Accessed Dec. 17, 2006. 

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