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From: swift@reed.UUCP (Theodore Swift)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.physics
Subject: Re: Hydrogen (isn't flammible?!?)
Message-ID: <1211@reed.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 31-Mar-85 05:27:32 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.1211
Posted: Sun Mar 31 05:27:32 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Apr-85 05:03:50 EST
References: <708@mhuxt.UUCP> <643@houxa.UUCP> <359@mnetor.UUCP>
Reply-To: swift@reed.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
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Xref: watmath net.misc:7739 net.physics:2376
Summary: 


There is one big advantage of hydrogen over helium:  hydrogen
has a much greater "lifting power", four times as much according
to a book _Airships_ I read a long, long time ago. Four times
strikes me as off, since hydrogen, though of atomic weight 1.00X,
is diatomic.  Thus it would only have "twice" the lifting power.
This same _Airships_ book (sorry I don't remember the author/publ.)
stated that "helium was a biproduct of the American natural gas
industry, something Germany didn't have <natural gas>".  Whether or
not there was stockpiling or embargoing going on, I dunno.  
   As to hydrogen running cars, you wouldn't store the stuff as a
compressed gas or as a liquid; that'd still be too hairy if there
was an accident (and there would be, unless we drastically change
the basic natures of the maniacs we call drivers).  One way of
*safely* storing hydrogen that's being investigated is lithium
hydrides:  saturating lithium metal with hydrogen.  I saw an article
about a prototype VW van with LiH[n] cells on the floor in the back.
I think they were using heat from the exhaust to drive the hydrogen 
out of the lithium cells.  They had some kind of heating coils to get
things going in cold weather.  I can't say much more without going off
into speculation-land.