It turns out that the doping on the fabric that held everything toegether and water proofed it was made of Iron Oxide and Aluminum which results in a compound called Thermite. Thermite is the substance used as ROCKET FUEL by NASA on the solid fuel rocket boosters for shuttle launch. How's that for irony?
What happened was that the Hindenburg flew through an electrical storm and when they dropped the cords, it was supposed to safely discharge all the electrical charge. But some of the doped panels were insulated by the cord holding them together, so when the rest of the air ship discharged, it created a high voltage electrical difference between some of the panels. Then there was the spark. The spark almost instantaneously ignited the rocket fuel that was painted on the outside. Of course the Hydrogen eventually caught fire, but you wouldn't have seen burning hydrogen on the video or the pictures. It burns invisibly. No wonder it burned so quickly, eh? COMMENTS? Who knew this?
2006-10-13
17:18:19
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7 answers
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asked by
Rockstar
6