The Hindenburg Disaster: Combining Physics and History in the Laboratory

This May marks the 80th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster. On May 6, 1937, the German passenger zeppelin Hindenburg, hovering 300 feet in the air and held aloft by seven million cubic feet of hydrogen gas, burst into flames while preparing to dock at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, NJ (Fig. 1). Amazingly, the ensuing fire consumed the massive airship in only 35 seconds! In the aftermath, 35 of 97 people onboard died (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) plus one member of the ground crew. Herbert Morrison, the broadcaster from Chicago’s WLS radio station, was on assignment that day covering the arrival of the majestic airship. Morrison’s eyewitness account of the disaster is legendary audio history. In fact, Morrison’s phrase, “Oh, the humanity!” has become a cultural idiom.