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THE HINDENBURG
RECREATION:
THE KÜRNÜL VER§ION
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A great thanks to my 9th grade chemistry teacher, Dr. Lombardi, for allowing me and my friend to take this project upon ourselves for the entertainment of our chemistry class and of course, ourselves (more thanks are at the bottom of this quite lengthy page). I decided to document the whole thing and seeing as how this project took more effort than running to the store or dumping gasoline on it, I decided to add this to 'Innovative Endeavors.' So, without further waiting I bring you.....
THE HINDENBURG RECREATION: The Kurnul Version.
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THE FAILED HYPOTHESIS
Through speculation, my chemistry teacher suggested using hydrochloric acid (commercially called muriatic
acid) and zinc or aluminum to tackle the first problem, getting hydrogen. Below is the equation that SHOULD
HAVE made hydrogen and a list of things I used to put this speculation into action and see if it actually worked.
    
   Through testing, I learned what was in the balloon was not hydrogen by four ways:
 When I did the flammability test (the picture above and to the right) I was disappointed in the display because instead of bursting into flames, it made a halfhearted 'pluuhh' A little more scientific way I found out was by blowing up a balloon about the same size full of air and dropping them at the same time at relatively the same height. The balloon gas produced by the muriatic acid fell FASTER than the one filled with air from my lungs.I accidentally let go of the neck of the balloon letting a little bit of gas out of the balloon. This stuff burned my nose giving a possibility of a hydrochloric acid in a gaseous state or something similar like that.Since Muriatic Acid isn't pure Hydrocloric Acid (less than half, 31.45% to be exact) then some of the other ingredients could be reacting with the aluminum producing some unknown gas.All that crap was to inform you how NOT to make hydrogen ~ now onto the real
project. With the equipment listed below the warning, one can produce hydrogen.
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There are several warnings I must give you in case you decide to try something like this for yourself:
ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND GLOVES!! CAUSTIC SODA CAN BLIND YOU!!!!!!!
 Sodium hydroxide, when combined with water, produces
CAUSTIC soda. Caustic soda is hmm..... CAUSTIC!! You
don't need to put it in water to produce it, the water in the
air and in your skin is good enough. This compound is a
very strong base. You can tell if you have it on you if your
skin feels slimy or slippery when you run it under water.
 The reaction is hot, and might burn you or break
an inadequate bottle. It may even get so hot as to
light the hydrogen being produced (I've never had
this happen to me). Be careful.
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           One (or more if many balloons are needed) thick, somewhat
large glass bottle with a small neck so that a balloon can fit
over the opening (or the balloon can fit over the cap).
 Some sodium hydroxide, which can be found
at your local chemical shop, usually called 'lye.'
 Your above-average mad scientist who looks
irresistible in yellow rubber gloves.
 Some balloons, start with the regular size
and work your way up to as big balloons
as you can.
 An accomplice.....errr a friend to help you and
some rolls (2-3) of aluminum foil.
 Some gloves, only if you don't want to get chemical
burns all over your hands (from the sodium hydroxide der).
 Some rubber bands, and a drill with a small bit (for
making the tops so you can refill the bottles).
 An amusing television program to watch while doing
this experiment (The Tom Green Show shown here).
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          According to this equation, we can make hydrogen by adding aluminum, water, and lye.
To first start the balloon making process, we had to find out if what we
were producing was actually hydrogen. That first step is shown below:
   Getting our first balloon filled up.
   Getting another balloon filled up (the reaction was still going, so we just put on another balloon).
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         Testing the balloons' flammability.
I never did get a good shot, but what happened is that when I tossed the
balloons in the fire, they made quite a loud noise along with an actual
fireball coming from the balloon (small, but it was there).
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This test was easy, I'll just show you some pictures to confirm the buoyancy of the balloons.
 
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THE MAKING OF
            Now onto the project. My chemistry teacher allowed my friends and I to
recreate the Hindenburg for 5% extra credit (I think we deserved 10% because
it took so long and so much energy). This was to demonstrate 'chemical
bonding.' The reaction that takes place is shown in an equation below:
THE ELEMENTS OF WATER, HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN, BOND TOGETHER TO
PRODUCE AN EXOTHERMIC REACTION (A REACTION THAT GIVES OFF ENERGY)
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ELECTROLYSIS
-The Untried Way-
Another possible way of getting hydrogen is electrolysis. This was discarded because of it's long time and difficulty of collecting the the gas. This way would produce the PUREST sample of hydrogen, seeing as how you only add salt.
With theses things, one can produce hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis:
 One AC/DC converter (that you don't want)salta glass jarwaterCut the end of the AC/DC converter near the end where it plugs into the electronic device. Split the wires and strip the ends of them back about 3 inches. Get some water and pour it in a glass jar. Get about a spoonful of salt and pour it in the water and mix it until it is completely dissolved into the water. Then take the stripped ends of the wire and submerge them in the water. Plus the other end into an outlet and the reaction should start going immediately. The 'electrode' with the most bubbles coming off of it is the one making the hydrogen gas. You're on your own now.
IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:
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Timing Is The Key
The actual project was to create a blimp-looking thing that was filled with hydrogen, just as
the real Hindenburg was. We used 10 balloons.
 THESE BALLOONS HAD TO BE MADEFULL-SIZE AS CLOSE AS TO THE DAY OF EXECUTION as possible. The reason for this is
simple. Rubber. Rubber does not hold helium well because it finds its way through the
bonds of the rubber/latex because of the small size of the molecules (He2). Well, if the size of
helium is 4 AMU (atomic mass units [the average number of protons and neutrons in all of
the isotopes of that element]) and H2 is 2 AMU, then hydrogen balloons should take half the
time to deflate than helium filled balloons. Since it takes 2-3 days for a helium balloon to
deflate noticeably, that leaves a small window of opportunity.
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 To get the purest hydrogen, keep the reaction cold. This of
course makes the balloons fill slower, but it's better if you have
the time to do this. The reaction actually gets hot
enough to boil the water and turn it into steam, which makes
the balloon heavier.
 Make the tops by drilling a small hole through the
top of the screw-on cap and putting the neck of the
balloon around the cap. Put a few wraps of a
rubber band around it to ensure a tight fit. If it
doesn't have a tight seal, it will leak out hydrogen.
Still in the beginning stages of the experiment.
The first balloon to reach full-size. VERY buoyant if you get a good amount of hydrogen.
 After I transferred the balloons to my other house (it was a pain to move them still blown up)
The blue one actually gave us a scare. The reaction started to get very violent and when I
walked out to my garage (I admit I wasn't supervising that well) it was nearly full-size. I then
called to 'Shawn,' which he didn't hear the first few times, and had a surprised/frightened look
on his face when he came out. That caused much of a rush to find a bucket and ice.
  Aligning the balloons and putting on its tissue paper exoskeleton (notice it still floats!).
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THE EXECUTION OF
           
A LITTLE ON THE LIGHTER SIDE; PRESENTED BY SHAWN
Here's a picture of it before the execution. It looks small, but it wasn't.
 A VERY NICE action shot. 'Shawn' in the white and me in the blue, ducking.
KABOOM!
 KABOOM!
Just after the explosion, my chemistry teacher with the glasses, my class (not all of them
though, some were looking for little army guys that were taped to the zeppelin), and my
vice principal to make sure everything ran smoothly.
 The remnants of HINDENBURG 2K1
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I would like to say one thing, it was worth it. All the time, pain of chemical burns, and resources
was definitely worth the satisfaction of that loud boom especially when nearly everyone in the
school heard it and was talking about it (I even heard it shook our mobile room units and seminary
building which are located quite close to where this occurred). As I was running back, I could feel
this enormous shockwave of heat and sound, it was amazing. This project was definitely worth it.
My only regret is that I never actually saw it explode, I only felt it.
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A GREAT MANY THANKS TO:
Mark, my dad, for helping me out with the many balloons
and for tolerating a bunch of lye on the garage floor.
Dr. Lombardi, for allowing me and my friend to show the class our talents.
Bob, my stepdad, for helping me with the framework, and applying of the framework,
and the idea of the framework, and, well, basically the framework thing.
'Shawn,' for taking some of the lye burns when we worked on the project.
Also for the making of napalm we never used which was deemed, 'too dangerous.'
My family, for the support and for allowing me to
skip out on a few get-togethers to work on this.
Patrick, for the nice shot of Shawn and I, as I most certainly would have.
Mr. Smith, for not condoning this experiment too harmful thus putting an end to a lot of work.
Mrs. Swasey, who added these pictures to the 'Looking Back' assembly presentation.
Mr. Milligan, Bro. Heaston, and others in the close blast
radius for not complaining too much about the noise.
WVXC, for the idea.
My chemistry class, for witnessing this great event and giving a good applause :-).
Brian and Lindsey, for not beating me up too much for
forgetting to get them out of class so they could watch.
The rest of my friends, who got a good laugh out of this, especially
when I set them up with, "Did you hear that loud explosion during 4th?"
IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST, WRITE ME.
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