“Why did the great airship Hindenburg go up in
flames?” That is one of the mysteries explored in Secrets of the Dead, a
series that premiered nationally on public television over three consecutive
nights in May.
The series focused on modern scientists who are
using today’s advanced technologies to investigate enigmas of the past,
frequently arriving at startling new conclusions about the causes of several
mysteries in human history. Topics included the disappearance of both Greenland’s
Vikings and the U.S.’s Pueblo Indians and the cause of the early Dark Ages.
One episode, “What Happened to the Hindenburg,”
focused on one of the most famous disasters of the 20th Century, the destruction
by fire of the Hindenburg airship over Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937, which
killed one person on the ground and 35 of the 97 passengers.
That well-known incident, caught on film and audio
recording, is widely believed to have been caused by the ignition of the
hydrogen gas used for lift. But, as reported in this publication (Spring 1997) and others, retired NASA scientist and
hydrogen specialist Addison Bain’s initial skepticism about that explanation
led to his extensive research on the incident. His discoveries about the true
cause of the disaster were the focus of the 17 May 2000 episode.
The Hindenburg was a state-of-the-art airship
built by the German company Zeppelin. Designed to travel at speeds up to 84
mph, it could cross the Atlantic Ocean at the then unheard-of time of 2.5 days.
Holding seven million cubic feet of hydrogen, the airship made 10 successful
trips between Europe and the U.S. in 1936, the year prior to the fire.
The passenger cabin was built into the body of the
ship so that the passengers could enjoy the view out the windows. The body of
the airship contained many individual cells filled with hydrogen, which allowed
the gas to be released properly for landing.
There were electrical storms in the area when the
Hindenburg approached. Witnesses saw the fire originally appear to start from
the back. According to Bain, there were only two witnesses on the starboard
side of the ship who could see precisely where the fire started, and they were
largely ignored by the investigators. They claimed that they saw flames shooting
from the back of the fin and rutters, which is a different location from where
the hydrogen reportedly was being released. This raised Bain’s suspicions.
He came across accounts of the color of the flames:
bright red and orange. But hydrogen burns blue when it can be seen at all.
There is no doubt that the hydrogen at that point was burning as well, but it
was masked by the brighter colors of something else burning.
Also, looking over film footage of the flaming
Hindenburg, Bain noticed that it remained buoyant for many seconds after the
fire began; it did not drop to the ground instantly as would have happened if
the hydrogen were suddenly combusted. That meant something else was burning.
Finally, he noticed that the outer covering was burning rapidly, at 49 feet
per second.
The Germans had to ensure that the zeppelin’s cover
was both waterproof and heat-resistant in order to keep the hydrogen from
expanding. Therefore, they had to paint a compound onto the covering. Initially,
Bain couldn’t find in all his research what the compound was. By chance, he
met an individual who had connections to someone with samples of the covering.
After obtaining some of the samples, he took them to the lab to be analyzed.
It was determined that the compound was made of iron oxide and powdered aluminum,
the same stuff used in rocket fuel! And iron oxide itself is quite conductive.
Bain traveled to Germany to attempt to find any
evidence that the Germans were aware at that time of any danger. He came across
a document at the Zeppelin Museum which acknowledged that there was a slight
chance of a fire from the material under the right circumstances. However,
that information was never released, due to Nazi embarrassment that would have
likely ensued if design flaws were released to the public. According to Bain,
“They knew that [the cover was responsible] a couple of months after the
accident.” It was a cover up. The Germans then reformulated the doping material
for future airships, but the era of the great airships was over; the program
was cancelled.
Secrets of the Dead was a production of
Thirteen/WNET New York and Channel 4 (UK). Beth C. Hoppe and Dan Chambers
were executive producers; William R. Grant was the executive in charge.