Evening Star Newspaper, May 9, 1937, Page 8

A—8 SURVIVORS OF AIR DISASTER LAUDED Dr. Luther Recites Their Plea Not to Lose “Faith in Big Airships.” By the Associated Press. “Don’t lose confidence; don't give up your faith in big airships.” ‘Those words, uttered through the swollen lips of badly burned pessen- gers and crew members of the ill- fated dirigible Hindenburg, com- posed the dominating impression brought back to Washington by Am- bassador Hans Luther from his flying trip to the scene of the catastrophe st Lakehurst, N. J. . He mid so yesterday while de- acribing the tragic scenes he en- countered. Seated at his desk in the Embassy, which he shortly is to leave to re- turn to Germany for a new assign- ment, the white-haired envoy depre- cated rumors that sabotage might have been responsible for the disaster. “There is only one explanation I ean see for the frightful accident and that is that it must have been an act of God,” he said. Courage of Survivors. Luther told of the stoical courage displayed by most of the survivors who were critically injured. He visited each of them personally in hospitals to express his sympathy. “Some of those people were close to death,” he said with a quaver in his voice. “Yet most of them who could talk said to me that this ter- rible thing should not discourage us from continuing the work which we have begun on lighter-than-air navigation. “You would have thought—it would appear to be the natural human re- action under such conditions—that | those people would recoil from thoughts of further travel in that manner But almost without excep- tion they were insistent that this awful catastrophe should not destroy eonfidence in such ships. “Don't Lose Faith.” *“I never shall forget the words of a German lady passenger who was en route to Mexico. Her husbend was killed, but she doesn't know that yet. Bhe saved her two small sons by lit- erally throwing them out of the flam- ing ship. “Her hands were badly burned by their blazing clothing and she was otherwise critically injured. But try- ing to smile, she said to me, through swollen lips: “Herr Ambassador, don't lose con- fidence; don't lose faith in Zep- pelins.” The Ambassador marveled at the heroism of most of the injured in suf- fering their hurts in silence. He found none who complained, he said. This indifference to pain prompted one hos- pital doctor to say to him: “*Those people can certainly take it.” Luther praised highly the rescue work performed by officers and men of the Lakehurst station. No Evidence of Sabotage. Chairman Copeland meanwhile an- nounced that an investigator from his 8enate Commerce Committee sent to the scene of the disaster had uncov- ered no evidence of sabotage. Copeland added, however: “I cannot disabuse my mind of the possibility of sabotage. I don't say that | was the cause and it's purest conjec- ture when I suggest it, but nothing has turned up to remove sabotage as a possible cause.” ‘The committee investigator, Col. Harold E. Hartney. gave a preliminary report to Copeland by telephone. He said he would investigate further Soday. Hi_ndAenburg fContinued From First Page.) of the local air station. Lieut. Danlel 8. Weintraub was named recorder. ‘The board’s first duty was to notify $wo senior officers of the ill-fated dirigible, Heinrich Bauer, chief watch captain, and Walter Zeigler, & deck officer. It toid them they or any other members of the crew might testify, cross-examine witnesses and attend all sessions. Representatives of the Zeppelin company promised co- eperation. A spectator at the Naval Board's session was Maj. R. W. Schroeder, assistant director of the Bureau of Air Commerce and member of the Commerce Department Investigating Board. Heading this board was South Trimble, jr., Commerce Department solicitor, and the third member was Dennis Mulligan, chief of the bu- reau’s regulation and enforcement division. Germany was to be officially repre- sented at the hearings, German Am- bassador Luther naming Lieut. Gen. Priedrich von Boetticher, military and air attache of the German Embassy, 83 his observer. Theories as to the cause of the ex- Plosion aboard the Hindenburg Thurs- (* day night, which set the stern of the airship ablaze, remained only theories pending conclusion of the inquiries. A former naval officer, Kenneth W. Heinrich of Keyport, reported today that as the Hindenburg cruised over New Jersey before it crashed he saw one of its aft Diesel motors backfire. A theory & spark from & backfire had ignited the ship's lifting gas, the highly explosive hydrogen, was one of the many to be considered in the Investigations. 12 Passengers, 22 of Crew Dead. The Hindenburg death list in- eluded the names of 12 passengers and 22 crew members. The mammoth ship, making its first North Atlantic erossing this year and its twenty- first since it went into service in 1936, carried 36 passengers and & erew of 61 when it dropped to earth in flames. All but two of the passenger dead and six of the crew dead have been positively identified, the Zeppelin Corp. announced tonight. It was impossible to tell which of $wo passengers’ bodies was Dr. Birger Brinck, Swedish journalist, and which On Dlamonds. Watches. Sewelry, Guns., Cameras Mushesl lustruments, ete. i @ redee Messible Yor Sale - Toko Asr Bes Leavies UL and Ps. Ave. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 9, 1937—PART ONE. — So Near and Yet So Far — This photo probably shows more clearly than any other how near the Hindenburg was to Yod 13 her goal when she expi ground) and the hangar (left background). ed. The tangled wreckage lies between the mooring mast (left fore- —Wide World Photo. Hermann Doehner, Mexico City im- porter, it said. Previously, a representative of the Swedish Consul tentatively identified one of the bodies as Brinck's. Doehner’s daughter Irene died of burns, and his wife Mathilda and two sons, Walter, 10, and Werner, 6, are | in a hospital, gravely injured. The company had only last names of the unidentified crew dead: Schreib- mueller, Holderried, Knorr, Gichelman, Stoeckle and Schlapp. No funerals will be held until all means of identification have been exhausted, the company announce- ment said. Releasing the bodies of the dead, Coroner Raymond Taylor issued cer- tificates of “accidental death.” Bodies of the crew members were taken by a Hoboken undertaker for shipment to Germany on the first available ship. The body of Capt. Ernst Lehmann, former Hindenburg skipper who was aboard on the fatal trip as an observer, was to be held until the arrival of his widow. He died last night. 25 Sall on Steamer, Twenty-five persons, meanwhile, who had planned to cross the Atlantic on the Hindenburg's return trip, sailed instead on the Italian liner Rex today. Most of them said they would never fly in a dirigible unless it used helium, & non-inflammable gas. Consul General Dr. Hans Borchers and Consul H. R. Hirschfeld came to Lakehurst to arrange details for the return to Germany of the dead air- men and to provide surviving mem- bers of the crew with new passports. The survivors, who are quartered with officers and men at the air sta- tion, will remain here for several days at least, a company representative said. Several probably will testify in the inquiry. Ranking officers who will probably | be called are Capts. Albert Sammt, Alton Witteman and Heinrich Bauer, and Navigation Officers Ziegler and Max Label. “GOD’'S WILL,” GOERING SAYS Germany Speeds Construction on New Dirigible Despite Disaster. BERLIN, May 8 (#).—Germany's highest aviation official ascribed to- day to “God’'s will” the destruction of the Third Reich’s pride of the air, the Zeppelin Hindenburg. But, at the same time, Gen. Her- mann Wilhelm Goering, the air min- ister, who is second omly to Adolph Hitler in the Nazi state, ordered rush work on a new zeppelin. His govern- ment sped an investigating commis- sion to the scene of flaming tragedy at Lakehurst. The commission, headed by Dr. Hugo Eckener, the Hindenburg’s de- signer, reached Cherbourg, France, by plane to take the Europa for the United States. There are six mem- bers. Relatives of those who were aboard the dirigible anxiously awaited at Frankfort-on-Main and Friedrichs- hafen the news from hospitals in the United States concerning the condi- tion of crash victims, hoping fervently the slowly mounting death list would come to a halt. Special sympathy was extended to Frau Lehmann, whose famous hus- band, Capt. Ernst Lehmann, died in an American hospital of burns re- ceived in the Hindenburg’s crash, She also embarked on the Europa. ‘The death of William Speck, chief radio officer aboard the dirigible, struck a heavy blow at the Zeppelin works. He had been in charge of radio work since the dirigible Los An- geles was built more than 12 years ago. Qoering, speaking at the opening of the Nazi ‘creative people” fair, told his listeners they shouk kneel down and thank God for Reichs- fuehrer Adolf Hitler, “who made the unity of our people possible.” He also Jibed indirectly at the delayed open- ing of the Paris Exposition by saying “no strikes and no social problems” had hindered the Duesseldorf Fair. The Paris opening date, put off by construction delays, is May 24. Goering ordered builders at Fried- richshafen to rush to completion the LZ-130, designed as a sister ship to the Hindenburg. But Dr. Eckener said the Graf Zeppelin, now in regular service be- tween Germany and South America, would make no more flights until the Hindenburg disaster is cleared up. The Graf landed today from s South American trip. ~EE Community Service Needs Piano. ‘Though several persons already have offered pianos to the Community Service Department for use during the Summer festivals at the National Sylvan Theater, Mrs. E. K. Peeples, director of the department and the programs, announced yesterday that a particularly strong instrument is needed for outdoor uses and none of those offered could be accepted. 672-Pound Fish Caught. It required 10 men to haul in a royal sturgeon, 12 feet long and weighing 672 pounds, which was caught off Lowestoff, Englan SEE TOWSO;'I Azaleas Now Blooming Join the thousands who each year see the exquisite European and Oriertal Azaleas in all the splendor of their magnificent colorings. Japanese Cherries and many other flowering trees and shrubs now in full bloom. One of the outstanding flower shows of the country. Special showings each week Added features each week end. Visitors welcome. Ample parking. TOWSON NURSERIES, Inc. Towson, Maryland York Road. opposite Maryland Btate Teachers' College, 2 mile from Towson; 7 miles from Baltimore. A beautifully designed instrument with the RESOTONIC CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLE that gives you amazingly full tone in a tiny piano. We consider it the best of the newer models and it's R e S e e in Louis XV, e Sheraton styles. MODAL PICPURED ms ON EASY PERMS ARTHUR JORDAN PIANO COMPANY 1239 G STREET . .. CORNER 13TH A News of Disaster Is Suppressed for Graf Passengers 23 Alight From Zeppe- lin After Flight From South America. By the Associated Press. FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany, May 8—The Graf Zeppelin returned to her home port from a South Amer- ican trip today, with passengers una- ware until & few hours before she landed that the Hindenburg had crashed. “The shocking news reached me about three hours after it happened,” sald Capt. Hans Von Schiller, the Graf's commander. “I thought it best under the cir- cumstances to withhold it from others until today, when I told the crew. The passengers were informed much later.” The Graf landed at 4:55 pm. (11:55 a.m, Eastern standard time). There were no joyful shouts, no waving hands to greet the big dirigible. Twenty-three passengers alighted. ‘The Graf carried two babies, 11 and 30 months old. Crew members went to their homes saddened by the loss of close friends who were aboard the Hindenburg. e Auxiliary Picnic Today. Base ball, volley ball and other sports events will feature the second | annual Spring picnic of the Women's Auxiliary of the Federation of Archi- tects, Engineers, Chemists and Tech- nicians, to be held at 2 p.m. today at Miller Cabin in Rock Creek Park. SPONTANEDUSFRE POSSBLE CALSE “Harmless Flame” in Lab- oratory May Show How Crash Occurred. B7 the Associated Press. PITTSBURGH, May 8.—The dis- aster of the Hindenburg can be ex- plained, without lightning, static from the ground, cigarette or engine apark by what happened about 10 days ago in & row of six hydrogen tanks whioch stand in the molecular physics lab- oratory lere at the Oarnegie Insti- tute of Technology. A tiny blue flame appeared appar- ently spontaneously ‘where one of the tanks sprang & leak—through a hole almost 100 small to be seen with & miscroscope. The flame was harmless in the laboratory, because there was no hy- drogen outside the tank to explode. In an airship it could easily have started & fire, or an explosion, or both, Furthermore this recent hydrogen flame was nothing unusual, in these same hydrogen tanks. The little flame always appears with & leak of the gas. The reason why was explained to- day by Dr. Otto Stern, director of the Research Laboratory of Molecular Physics. ‘The speed of the escapin; gas sets up friction, which produces static electricity. As a result, a difference of potential forms around the little hole through which hydrogen is escap- ing. Next a spark jumps across the potential gap. The hydrogen, already mixed with air, ignites and then burns with a steady blue flame. Hydrogen is non-explostve until mixed with air, and hence these leak flames do not backfire into the tanks to cause explosions. But they would continue burning indefinitely, until the leak was stop- ped, or the hydrogen exhausted from the tank. ‘The hydrogen in the Carnegie Tech tanks is stored under nearly 3,000 pounds pressure. 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