Tag: fire

Calendar: December 24

A Year: Day to Day Men: 24th of December

Namor the Sub-Mariner: Homo Mermanus

On December 24, 1851, a fire burns 35,000 volumes at the United States Library of Congress.

As Americans celebrated Christmas Eve, 1851, a fire ripped through the US Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroying 35,000 volumes. A faulty chimney flue set off the blaze, which took two-thirds of the collection, including most of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library that had been sold to the institution in 1815.

Initially established in 1800 when President John Adams approved legislation that appropriated $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress” — the first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801. They were stored in the U.S. Capitol. Twelve years later, the British army invaded the city of Washington and burned the Capitol, including the 3,000-volume Library of Congress. Jefferson responded to that loss by selling his personal library of 6,487 volumes — the largest and finest in the country — to Congress to “recommence” the library.

After the fire of 1851, architect of the Capitol Thomas U. Walter presented a plan to repair and enlarge the Library room using fireproof materials throughout. The elegantly restored Library room was opened on August 23, 1853. Called by the press the “largest iron room in the world,” it was encircled by galleries and filled the west central front of the Capitol. A month before the opening, Pres. Franklin Pierce inspected the new Library in the company of British scientist Sir Charles Lyell, who pronounced it “the most beautiful room in the world.”

The current collection consists of more than 164 million total items: more than 38 million books and other printed materials, 3.6 million recordings, 14 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 8.1 million pieces of sheet music and 70 million manuscripts. It also has 5,711 incunabula (early printed books before 1501) and 122,810,430 items in the nonclassified (special) collections. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials and Library employees may check out books and materials (except through interlibrary loan, which is available to the public.

Dragon

Artist Unknown, (The Fire Dragon)

“How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Calendar: May 6

A Year: Day to Day Men: 6th of May

The Full Stretch

On May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to dock.

The Hindenburg, Luftschiff Zeppelin #129, had a duralumin structure, incorporating fifteen Ferris wheel-like main ring bulkheads along its length, with sixteen cotton gas bags fitted between them. The airship’s outer skin was of cotton doped with a mixture of reflective materials intended to protect the bags from light damage and overheating from the sun. There were small passenger quarters in the middle flanked by large public rooms  Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks.

Helium was initially selected for the lifting gas because it was the safest being not flammable. Despite a U.S. ban on the export of helium under the Helium Control Act of 1927, the Germans designed the airship to use the far safer gas in the belief that they could convince the US government to license its export. When the designers learned that the National Munitions Control Board would refuse to lift the export ban, they were forced to re-engineer Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift. No alternative lighter than air gases could provide sufficient lift.

On the fateful May 1937 trip, the Hindenburg took off on time, it ran into delays crossing the Atlantic due to headwinds and approaching storm fronts. The crew radioed Lakehurst announcing they would delay their arrival time by 10 to 12 hours, from 6 a.m. on May 6 to late afternoon. This allowed the airship to float over the Boston and New York City skies during daylight hours, which was not part of the original schedule.

The airship arrived at Lakehurst at about 4:15 p.m., only to begin circling again because of bad weather. By 6:15 p.m., the storm had subsided and Lakehurst’s commanding officer told the ship’s captain to land as soon as possible to beat another approaching storm. Shortly after 7 p.m., the Hindenburg neared the mooring mast, but the tail felt heavy and the winds prevented the ship from being level. In response, the captain released hydrogen from cells 11 to 16 for 30 seconds in hopes of reducing the buoyancy of the bow and keeping the ship in level trim.

At the same time, the winds shifted, leaving the airship little room to maneuver. So the crew executed a sharp turn to align with the mooring mast. In the end, it was a lot of adjusting, leveling and quick decision-making that all could been factors what ended up happening. At 7:21 p.m, with the airship 180 feet in the air, the forward landing ropes were dropped. Then the airship caught on fire; at 7:25 pm, little was left but rubble.

Hindenburg left Frankfurt with ninety seven people onboard; 62 survived the crash at Lakehurst, although many suffered serious injuries. Thirteen of the thirty-six passengers, and twenty-two of the sixty-one member crew, died as a result of the crash, along with one member of the civilian landing party.

Two Elements

Artist Unknown, (Two Elements: Water and Fire), Computer Graphics, Animation Gifs

Water
水 Sui or mizu, meaning “Water”, represents the fluid, flowing, formless things in the world. Outside of the obvious example of rivers and the lake, plants are also categorized under sui, as they adapt to their environment, growing and changing according to the direction of the sun and the changing seasons. Blood and other bodily fluids are represented by sui, as are mental or emotional tendencies towards adaptation and change. Sui can be associated with emotion, defensiveness, adaptability, flexibility, suppleness, and magnetism.

Fire
火 Ka or Hi, “Fire”, represents the energetic, forceful, moving things in the world. Animals, capable of movement and full of forceful energy, are primary examples of ka objects. Bodily, ka represents our metabolism and body heat, and in the mental and emotional realms, it represents drive and passion. Ka can be associated with security, motivation, desire, intention, and an outgoing spirit.