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May 6, 1937

Hindenberg

The Hindenberg caught fire and crashed 71 years ago today. That event has nothing to do with this blog. I just thought the above picture was funny.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 12:22 am and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

3 Responses to “May 6, 1937”

  1. Sarah Says:
    May 6th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    Meh, you can relate it back to the blog in SOME way. (If you already know the story, please feel free to skip Sarah’s mini-history lecture)

    The reason it caught fire was because the tar-like coating that they painted the on the outside was actually made of iron oxide and aluminum-impregnated cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB)…both of which are components in rocket fuel used today. That day happened to be the start of a storm and so there was a lot of static in the air due to the lightning that collected on the aircraft (The Hindenburg actually stayed away to avoid before moving into the landing area). However, a spark went off and the rest went up into flames…Some people say that it was the hydrogen inside the machine that caused it to catch fire, however hydrogen produces a blue flame and eye witnesses claim that the flame was orange and yellow (I.E Normal)

    Eye witness accounts confirm this theory (WIKIPEDIA): ‘At 7:25, a few witnesses had seen the fabric ahead of the upper fin flutter as if gas were leaking. At the same time another witness saw what looked like static electricity moving up the hull from the bottom. Immediately after this, witnesses started to report a small flame ahead of the upper fin. Commander Rosendahl testified it being “mushroom-shaped” and knew at once that the airship was doomed. One witness on the starboard side reported a fire beginning lower and behind the rudder on that side (however this may have happened after the initial fire on the port side).’

    So there you have it! A quick snapshot of an event in history.

    How does this relate the the fundies? Because that is a completely reasonable and scientific way of looking at the above mentioned…This concept is foreign to all those unfortunate people who just happen to possess the fundie gene!

    …Yeah, epic fail…

  2. Jason Failes Says:
    May 8th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Too soon!

  3. Sue Blue Says:
    May 9th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    It looks like that manatee just lit a fart.

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