From: nospam@127.0.0.1   
      
   On 2020-07-02 3:25 AM, frank.scrooby@gmail.com wrote:   
   > The acetate resin doped with alumiunum powder had already destroyed one and   
   maybe two other airships. Zeppelin (the company) was working day and night to   
   find an alternative. The company's lab where the new materials were tested   
   actually survived WWII    
   and the samples were later put in storage. Zeppelin knew there was a problem   
   (a big one) but couldn't afford to shut down its chief source of revenue, or   
   risk losing lucrative potential defense contracts with the Third Reich over a   
   'petty' safety concern.   
   >   
   > Analysis of the very famous Hindenburg plunging to the ground in flames   
   movie revealed a few things to the aforementioned scientist.   
   >   
   > (1) The spectacular fireball was in fact the doping catching fire and then   
   setting fire to one of the elements in the aluminium (magnesium I think) that   
   the Hindenburg was made of. Significant but less spectacular fireballs occur   
   when the heat from the    
   burning doping ignites the fuel tanks ( I can't remember if its petrol or   
   diesel).   
      
   But in order to get to those temperatures wouldn't you need an   
   accelerant? Like plentiful and abundant hydrogen? If there is no   
   accelerant like gas/diesel/hydrogen how aggressive is the fire?   
      
   >   
   > (2) hydrogen + O2 flames are typically all but invisible and would have been   
   completely invisible on the film of the time, given how it was processed.   
   Analysis of the film through modern filters did turn up a signature of H2+O2   
   flames in the UV    
   Spectrum. But the flames are gone after the first second of the film clip,   
   most of the hydrogen is either consumed or has already escaped.   
   >   
      
   My bad. I'll grant the fireball was the resins going up, nearly all at   
   once. Thanks to an accelerant. There would have been momentary enormous   
   heat from the hydrogen burn in infra-red. It depends how close you were   
   to the airship to how significant that exposure would have been.   
   Clothing would have protected you from that to some extent.   
      
   > (3) the film actually shows a number of people jumping to their deaths while   
   people (at the rear of the Zeppelin) wait until the tail hits the ground   
   before trying to bail.   
      
   Granted that.   
      
   >   
   > (4) No source of ignition external to the Hindenburg could be identified.   
   This doesn't rule out all of the exotic weather related possible causes, it   
   just points out that (then) 60 year old film technology can not be trust to   
   capture every detail.   
   >   
   >   
   >> you? Why does everyone on USENET split hairs?   
   >   
   > USENET, such as still exists (note I read and post through Google.Groups   
   because I can't get a local ISP to accept NNTP traffic), exists to SPLIT   
   HAIRS. It is the nature of the beast.   
      
   lol. true.   
      
   Good stuff that followed this snipped because I have no comment other   
   than to say: Thanks for the response. Your Internet connection is   
   certainly working well for text.   
      
   Dave   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)