3 ms·

> "Hydrogen can be made" Piggy-backing on your comment at a tangent - how did they make such large quantities of Hydrogen in the early 1900s (and store and tra

> "Hydrogen can be made" Piggy-backing on your comment at a tangent - how did they make such large quantities of Hydrogen in the early 1900s (and store and transport it safely)? This[1] has some interesting reading on it; there were gas cylinders but no standardisation of valves, not good lubricants for compressors, a different set of pipes for airship filling and airship topping-up, some stations which could remove and re-purify the Hydrogen, and two different methods of pre-war and post-war production are described. This[2] has much more detailed history of the options, including a Popular Mechanics article from 1908. [1] https://www.nevilshute.org/Engineering/AMBurgess/amb_hydrogen.php https://www.nevilshute.org/Engineering/AMBurgess/amb_hydroge... [2] https://welweb.org/ThenandNow/Hydrogen%20Generation.html https://welweb.org/ThenandNow/Hydrogen%20Generation.html

bombcar 5y ago
It’s interesting that the answer everyone gives is the least effective and efficient way - electrolysis. Sulfuric acid and iron into hydrogen is much simpler.
- ben_w 5y ago
  Efficient I can believe, but I’m curious why that’s simpler than electrolysis? I first played with electrolysis when I was nine.
  - rini17 5y ago
    It's simple but surprisingly fickle, even more if you want industrial amounts of hydrogen safely. This is an example of a home setup and nontrivial considerations that went into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85OX6yEwE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85OX6yEwE0
  - kragen 5y ago
    Depends on your metric. Sulfuric acid and iron is pretty simple if you don't count the blast furnace. Certainly a lot simpler than a gasoline generator. If you have grid power and a diode, electrolysis gets simpler --- though you probably want at least a transformer. Hydrolith is probably simpler and lighter than sulfuric acid and iron, though.

bombcar 5y ago

It’s interesting that the answer everyone gives is the least effective and efficient way - electrolysis. Sulfuric acid and iron into hydrogen is much simpler.

ben_w 5y ago
Efficient I can believe, but I’m curious why that’s simpler than electrolysis? I first played with electrolysis when I was nine.
- rini17 5y ago
  It's simple but surprisingly fickle, even more if you want industrial amounts of hydrogen safely. This is an example of a home setup and nontrivial considerations that went into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85OX6yEwE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85OX6yEwE0
- kragen 5y ago
  Depends on your metric. Sulfuric acid and iron is pretty simple if you don't count the blast furnace. Certainly a lot simpler than a gasoline generator. If you have grid power and a diode, electrolysis gets simpler --- though you probably want at least a transformer. Hydrolith is probably simpler and lighter than sulfuric acid and iron, though.