History repeating itself (NAC)

[Huw Powell]

> > The hydrogen idea is a very poor one, in my opinion (a tiny amount makes a
> > pretty big boom, I remember from Chemistry.)  Just what we want is a bunch
> > of vehicles containing a tank of highly explosive gas (you have seen the
> > pictures of the Hindenberg explosion?)
> 
> The Hindenburg was filled with HELIUM - not Hydrogen - which is what led to
> her demise! Helium is flammable, and explosive - Hydrogen is safe! VERY
> SAFE!

I hate to interrupt here but...

The *reason* you can use hydrogen as a simple fuel is that it oxidizes
so readily.  It spontaneously combusts in air, in fact.  With a "boom!"

I useta work in a factory where we formed the tubes for sodium lamps
(from an alumina powder, as I recall).  The second stage of "cooking"
them, the sintering, was done at a couple thousand degrees C, and the
furnaces used a hydrogen atmosphere to avoid contamination of the
tubes.  There were pilot lights at each end (they were conveyor ovens
like Pizza Hut uses) to keep the escaping hydrogen aflame.  If the pilot
went out it was kinda cool to watch when the door was opened!

Sealed lighter-than-air flying machines have been filled with heavier,
but inert, helium pretty much since the cover of the first Led Zeppelin
album was accidentally created.

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi/

http://www.humanthoughts.org/