Today, I continue to borrow excerpts from the hydrogen chapter of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://simplesolutionsbook1.com/), and relate a story about the Hindenburg.
You’ve all seen blimps, such as the Goodyear or Snoopy MetLife above major sporting events. Every so often, one docks at Lakehurst, New Jersey, where one of the most famous disasters of all time took place, but these modern day dirigibles all today use helium.
At 7:25PM on May 6, 1937, the German Hindenburg, three times longer than a Boeing 747, on its 63rd flight after 3,000 hours of reliable service, attempted to land at Lakehurst, and burst into flames, in 34 fiery seconds killing 36 people and sending the future of hydrogen into jeopardy. Sabotage? Perhaps, as Hitler was beginning his rampage. Weather? Thunderstorms had delayed the arrival by 12 hours already, and it was getting dark. Pilot error? Indications are that Captain Max Prust, in a hurry, might have made too tight a turn, maybe causing a fabric cell holding hydrogen to leak. Addison Bains, a long-time member of HTAP, has made a retirement career of proving that hydrogen was not the reason for the accident, it was the paint, he said. But the weight of scanty evidence is that there probably was a hydrogen leak, and the gas was sparked by an electrical charge.
In any case, these lighter than air crafts no longer use hydrogen. Will the public eventually forget the Hindenburg? Probably not. But should this disaster prevent the use of hydrogen for fuel? The Atomic Bomb led to fission power, now 17% of all electricity produced. Well, maybe that was not too good an example, but, with care and proper design, hydrogen can become a safe fuel for the future.
The price of oil stayed just above $140/barrel today.
-
สมัครสมาชิก:
ส่งความคิดเห็น (Atom)
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น