https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/hindenburg-interior-photos/

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The Hindenburg’s Interior: Vintage Photos Reveal What Luxury Air Travel Was Like in the 1930s

Before modern air travel and first-class suites, the grandest thing in luxury air travel was the German Zeppelin airship.

The Hindenburg was designed to ferry passengers across the Atlantic in serenity, with the dirigible floating smoothly through the clouds. The airship was considered the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume.

During the 1930s, airships like the Hindenburg class were widely considered the future of air travel, and the lead ship of the class, LZ 129 Hindenburg, established a regular transatlantic service. The airship’s destruction in a highly publicized accident was the end of these expectations.

The Hindenburg floats over Manhattan Island in New York City on May 6, 1937, just hours from disaster in nearby New Jersey.

Hindenburg had a duralumin structure, incorporating 15 Ferris wheel-like main ring bulkheads along its length, with 16 cotton gas bags fitted between them.

The bulkheads were braced to each other by longitudinal girders placed around their circumferences. The airship’s outer skin was of cotton doped with a mixture of reflective materials intended to protect the gas bags within from radiation, both ultraviolet (which would damage them) and infrared (which might cause them to overheat).

The gas cells were made by a new method pioneered by Goodyear using multiple layers of gelatinized latex rather than the previous goldbeater’s skins.

Dining Room of Airship Hindenburg. (Photo from Airships.net collection).

Hindenburg’s interior furnishings were designed by Fritz August Breuhaus, whose design experience included Pullman coaches, ocean liners, and warships of the German Navy.

The upper “A” Deck contained 25 small two-passenger cabins in the middle flanked by large public rooms: a dining room to port and a lounge and writing room to starboard.

The pictures collected in this article reveal what luxury air travel looked like aboard the airship Hindenburg in the mid-1930s. The photos are part of the Airship.net collection by Dan Grossman.

Each cabin had call buttons to summon a steward or stewardess, a small fold-down desk, a wash basin made of lightweight white plastic with taps for hot and cold running water, and a small closet covered with a curtain in which a limited number of suits or dresses could be hung; other clothes had to be kept in their suitcases, which could be stowed under the lower berth.

None of the cabins had toilet facilities; male and female toilets were available on B Deck below, as was a single shower, which provided a weak stream of water “more like that from a seltzer bottle” than a shower, according to Charles Rosendahl.

Dining Room of Airship Hindenburg. (Photo from Airships.net collection).

Paintings on the dining room walls portrayed the Graf Zeppelin’s trips to South America. A stylized world map covered the wall of the lounge.

Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks. The passengers were expected to spend most of their time in the public areas, rather than their cramped cabins.

The lower “B” Deck contained washrooms, a mess hall for the crew, and a smoking lounge. Yes, you heard it right, one of the most surprising areas aboard a hydrogen airship was the smoking room.

However, it was kept at higher than ambient pressure, so in case of a leak, the hydrogen couldn’t enter the room. Furthermore, its associated bar was separated from the rest of the ship by a double-door airlock. There was one electric lighter since no open flames were allowed aboard the ship.

Harold G. Dick, an American representative from the Goodyear Zeppelin Company, recalled “The only entrance to the smoking room, which was pressurized to prevent the admission of any leaking hydrogen, was via the bar, which had a swiveling air lock door, and all departing passengers were scrutinized by the bar steward to make sure they were not carrying out a lit cigarette or pipe.”

Dining on the Hindenburg. (Photo from Airships.net collection).

The Hindenburg’s bar was a small ante-room between the smoking room and the air-lock door leading to the corridor on B-Deck.

This is where Hindenburg bartender Max Schulze served up LZ-129 Frosted Cocktails (gin and orange juice) and Maybach 12 cocktails (recipe lost to history), but more importantly, it is where Schulze monitored the air-lock to ensure that no one left the smoking room with burning cigarettes, cigars, or pipes.

Hindenburg made 17 round trips across the Atlantic in 1936—its first and only full year of service—with ten trips to the United States and seven to Brazil.

The flights were considered demonstrative rather than routine in schedule. The first passenger trip across the North Atlantic left Frankfurt on 6 May with 56 crew and 50 passengers, arriving in Lakehurst on 9 May.

As the elevation at Rhein-Main’s airfield lies at 111 m (364 ft) above sea level, the airship could lift 6 tonnes (13,000 lb) more at takeoff there than she could from Friedrichshafen, which was situated at 417 m (1,368 ft).

Passenger Lounge. (Photo from Airships.net collection).

The airship was said to be so stable a pen or pencil could be balanced on end atop a tablet without falling. Launches were so smooth that passengers often missed them, believing the airship was still docked to the mooring mast.

A one-way fare between Germany and the United States was US$400 (equivalent to $7,811 in 2021); Hindenburg passengers were affluent, usually, entertainers, noted sportsmen, political figures, and leaders of the industry.

Hindenburg was used again for propaganda when it flew over the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on August 1 during the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games.

Two views of the Lounge, showing a portrait of Hitler and the ship’s duralumin piano.

In 1936, Hindenburg had a Blüthner aluminium grand piano placed on board in the music salon, though the instrument was removed after the first year to save weight

Over the winter of 1936–37, several alterations were made to the airship’s structures. The greater lift capacity allowed nine passenger cabins to be added, eight with two beds and one with four, increasing passenger capacity to 70.

These windowed cabins were along the starboard side aft of the previously installed accommodations, and it was anticipated for the LZ 130 to also have these cabins. Additionally, the Olympic rings painted on the hull were removed for the 1937 season.

After making the first South American flight of the 1937 season in late March, Hindenburg left Frankfurt for Lakehurst on the evening of 3 May, on its first scheduled round trip between Europe and North America that season.

The now known as the Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. The passenger airship caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst.

The accident caused 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) from the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), and an additional fatality on the ground.

The disaster was the subject of newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison’s recorded radio eyewitness reports from the landing field, which were broadcast the next day.

A variety of theories have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The publicity shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the abrupt end of the airship era.

Passenger Cabin aboard Hindenburg. (Photo from Airships.net collection).

Starboard Promenade aboard LZ-129 Hindenburg, next to the Lounge. (Photo from Airships.net collection).

Pressurized Smoking Room aboard LZ-129 Hindenburg, showing the door to the bar, with the airlock doors beyond. (Photo from Airships.net collection).

Hindenburg Control Room (Ludwig Felber at helm, possibly Knut Eckener to his right). At far left is ballast board, then rudder station with gyro compass repeater, to right of tall figure is the eyepiece of a drift measuring telesope, and to the right is the engine telegraph, axial corridor speaking tube, altimeter, and engine instruments; to the far right is a variometer.

Hindenburg’s Navigation Room.

Hindenburg Radio Room.

Hindenburg galley on B Deck.

B Deck: Crew mess, with photographs of Hitler and Hindenburg (left); Officers mess (right).

As the lifting Hydrogen gas burned and escaped from the rear of the Hindenburg, the tail dropped to the ground, sending a burst of flame punching through the nose. Ground crew below scatter to flee the inferno.

(Photo credit: airships.net collection by Dan Grossman / Wikimedia Commons / Britannica / Bundesarchiv / Archiv der Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, Friedrichshafen).

#RareHistoricalPhotos #History #Aviation #Airship #Hindenburg

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The Photographic History of RMS Olympic (Titanic's Sister Ship), 1911-1935

The Photographic History of RMS RMS Olympic, 1911-1935RMS Olympic was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1910–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger Titanic (which had the same dimensions but higher gross register tonnage) before the German SS Imperator went into service in June 1913.

Olympic also held the title of the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of Titanic and Britannic.

The keel for the Olympic, Harland & Wolff Yard No. 400, was laid on December 16, 1908 under the Harland & Wolff Shipyard’s new Arrol Gantry. It was here that she and her sister, Titanic, were built side by side.
Titanic‘s progress trailed some months in the Olympic‘s wake, and would enter service some time after Olympic. The Olympic was launched on October 20, 1910, and when she started down the ways, she became the largest moving object in the world.

RMS Olympic arriving at New York on her maiden voyage, 21 June 1911.

The Olympic – the world’s newest, largest and most luxurious ocean liner – made her maiden voyage on June 14, 1911. Aboard was J. Bruce Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line and son of the Line’s founder.

Also aboard was Harland & Wolff’s Thomas Andrews, nephew of Harland & Wolff’s Lord Pirrie. Captain Smith – who would go on to command the Titanic on her legendary and ill-fated maiden voyage the following year – was in command.

The Olympic was so remarkable that by the time she had docked in New York, the formal order for the third entrant of the Olympic-class was placed.

During the following ten months, the Olympic garnered the lion’s share of the fame on the Atlantic. Her sister Titanic was not given anywhere near the amount of attention, simply because she was the second of the class. Only after she sank did the Titanic eclipse the Olympic’s fame.

Olympic under construction, c. 1909. The Arrol Gantry can be seen towering over the ship. Titanic’s keel is visible to the left.

Olympic made four round-trip voyages to New York and back to Southampton over the summer of 1911. Then, on September 20, 1911, she departed Southampton on what was to be her fifth west-bound crossing.

As she proceeded toward the open sea, she encountered the HMS Hawke, a 360-foot long cruiser. The two vessels steamed side-by-side along a roughly parallel course, with the cruiser along the liner’s starboard side.

At first, the smaller vessel was overtaking the Olympic, but then the Olympic‘s engine speed was increased, and the cruiser began to fall back.

The suction from the larger ship’s propellers began to grow, and the Hawke was pulled bow-first into the starboard stern quarter of the Olympic. The Hawke‘s bow was crushed back, while the Olympic‘s hull was breached, and her two largest watertight compartments began to flood.

Her crossing was canceled, and she limped back up to Belfast for repairs. The process kept her out of commission until the end of November.

Once she returned to service, however, the Olympic proved that she was still a strong, reliable ship, even enduring severe punishment from the North Atlantic during a west-bound crossing to New York.

Olympic painted grey and ready for launching, c. 1910. Titanic under construction, is visible to the left.

On 9 October 1912, White Star withdrew Olympic from service and returned her to her builders at Belfast to have modifications added to incorporate lessons learned from the Titanic disaster six months prior, and improve safety.

The number of lifeboats carried by Olympic was increased from twenty to sixty-eight, and extra davits were installed along the boat deck to accommodate them. An inner watertight skin was also constructed in the boiler and engine rooms, which created a double hull.

On 4 August 1914, Britain entered the First World War. Olympic initially remained in commercial service under Captain Herbert James Haddock.

As a wartime measure, Olympic was painted in a gray color scheme, portholes were blocked, and lights on deck were turned off to make the ship less visible. The schedule was hastily altered to terminate at Liverpool rather than Southampton, and this was later altered again to Glasgow.

The launch of Olympic on 20 October 1910.

The first few wartime voyages were packed with Americans trapped in Europe, eager to return home, although the eastbound journeys carried few passengers.

By mid-October, bookings had fallen sharply as the threat from German U-boats became increasingly serious, and White Star Line decided to withdraw Olympic from commercial service.

After the War, the ship underwent a large-scale refurbishment at Harland & Wolff, which included her conversion to an oil-firing power plant. Then she was returned to commercial service.

Throughout the 1920’s, she proved herself a solid, reliable vessel. But even the great Olympic could not survive the changing times. With the advent of newer, more modern-looking liners with more private bathrooms for their first class passengers, the Olympic began to look dated.

When the Great Depression hit, this situation was made only worse as passenger bookings continued to decline. Nevertheless, the ship managed to help keep the White Star Line financially afloat.

An image of the propellers of the Olympic, 1911.

In 1934, the White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line at the instigation of the British government, to form Cunard White Star. This merger allowed funds to be granted for the completion of the future Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.

When completed, these two new ships would handle Cunard White Star’s express service; so their fleet of older liners became redundant and were gradually retired.

After being laid up for five months alongside her former rival Mauretania, she was sold to Sir John Jarvis – Member of Parliament – for £97,500, to be partially demolished at Jarrow to provide work for the depressed region.

On 11 October 1935, Olympic left Southampton for the last time and arrived in Jarrow two days later. The scrapping began after the ship’s fittings were auctioned off.

Between 1935 and 1937, Olympic’s superstructure was demolished, and then on 19 September 1937, her hull was towed to Thos. W. Ward’s yard at Inverkeithing for final demolition which was finished by late 1937.

At that time, the ship’s chief engineer commented, “I could understand the necessity if the ‘Old Lady’ had lost her efficiency, but the engines are as sound as they ever were”.

By the time of her retirement, Olympic had completed 257 round trips across the Atlantic, transporting 430,000 passengers on her commercial voyages, traveling 1.8 million miles.

The Grand Staircase of Olympic.

Olympic (left) being manoeuvred into dry dock in Belfast for repairs on the morning of 2 March 1912 after throwing a propeller blade. Titanic (right) is moored at the fitting-out wharf. Olympic would sail for Southampton on 7 March, concluding the last time the two ships would be photographed together.

Olympic as she appeared after her refit following the Titanic disaster, with an increased complement of lifeboats, on a Fred Pansing painting, c. 1912.

#RareHistoricalPhotos #Photography #Ships #Maritime #Olympic #Ulster #UK #Engineering

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/paris-street-scenes-vintage-photos/

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Vintage Color Photos Capture Street Scenes of Paris in the 1960s

These fascinating color photographs capture street scenes of Paris in the 1960s. In 1958, Charles de Gaulle formed a new government and the Fifth Republic was born.

During the ten years that de Gaulle occupied the presidency, France and Paris experienced rapid economic growth, which was accompanied by the building of new office buildings and housing, and the rehabilitation of historic neighborhoods in the center of the city.

De Gaulle’s Minister of Culture, André Malraux, oversaw the reconstruction of the historic neighborhoods in the center, particularly Le Marais.

In Le Marais and the other designated historic zones, the rehabilitation consisted of leaving the façade and walls intact, while rebuilding completely the interior of the building.

The Malraux law also required that the façades of buildings be scrubbed clean of centuries of accumulated soot and dirt. The most visible improvement was the cleaning of the cathedral of Notre Dame, which in a few months turned from black to white.

Arc de Triomphe , Champs-Elysées, Paris, 1960. Photo: Charles Weever Cushman.

In other neighborhoods in the center of the city, the rehabilitation took a different form: residential buildings of the Haussmann era were transformed into offices.

As the price of land doubled in the city center, middle class residents moved out to the suburbs. Dilapidated and crumbling residential buildings were torn down and replaced by office buildings. The population of the arrondissements in the city center markedly decreased.

The neighborhood of the central market of Les Halles was also a target for renewal. The old market was too small and traffic around it too congested to serve the needs of the growing city.

One of the historic pavilions was preserved and moved to a park outside the city, but the others were closed down and the site, after long debate, was eventually turned into a park and underground commercial space, the Forum des Halles.
Until the 1960s there were no tall buildings in Paris to share the skyline with the Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in the city; a strict height limit of thirty-five meters was in place.

However, in October 1958, under the Fifth Republic, in order to permit the construction of more housing and office buildings, the rules began to change. A new urban plan for the city was adopted by the municipal council in 1959.

Higher buildings were permitted, as long as they met both technical and aesthetic standards. The first new tower to be constructed was an apartment building, the Tour Croulebarbe, at 33 rue Croulebarbe in the 13th arrondissement.

It was twenty-two stories, and sixty-one meters high, and was completed in 1961. Between 1960 and 1975, about 160 new buildings higher than fifteen stories were constructed in Paris, more than half of them in the 13th and 15th arrondissements.
The most important project of de Gaulle’s government was the construction of a new business district at La Défense, just west of the city limits.

The idea was to create a new business center, since there was no more room to build in the traditional business center, around the Opera; and also to extend the historic axis of the city, an imaginary east-west line which ran from the porte-Maillot at the eastern edge of the city to Place de la Bastille, to the Louvre, and through the Place de la Concorde along the Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe.

It allowed the creation of a French version of Manhattan, without disturbing the skyline and architecture of the historic center of the city.
In the suburbs of Paris, the process of de-industrialization was already under way before de Gaulle. Under the Fourth Republic, enterprises had been required to get government approval for every new industrial building over 500 square meters, and to pay heavy charges to subsidize transportation and other services. The government also paid a subsidy for the demolition of old factory buildings.

The rising price of land was a major factor in the move of industry out of the city and the suburbs to other regions. Between 1960 and 1966, 352,000 square meters of industrial buildings was destroyed a year, while only 295,000 square meters was built.

By 1960, the industrial space of the Paris region represented only 10 percent of the national total.

Rue de la Montagne Ste. Geneviere, Paris, 1960. Photo: Charles Weever Cushman.

Rue Mont Genis, Montmartre, Paris, 1960. Photo: Charles Weever Cushman.

Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1961. (More at: Pissoirs: The vintage public urinals of Paris, 1865-1875).

Stamp collectors on Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1967.

Pond boats, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, 1968.

Top of the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1968.

(Photo credit: Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection via University of Indiana / Flickr / Pinterest / Wikimedia Commons).

#RareHistoricalPhotos #Photography #Paris #France #Sixties

I have posted this link before BUT in my opinion both the photography AND the story are outstanding. Therefore, you may enjoy a second look :-).

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/women-workers-photos-usa-world-war-two/

Rare Historical Photos

Women workers of World War II: These color photos show the real-life Rosie the Riveters, 1941-1943

#Photography #Photos #RareHistoricalPhotos #WWII #USA

● [Old] ● #RareHistoricalPhotos #Standards ☞ Dagen H, the day Sweden switched sides of the road, 1967 https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/dagen-h-sweden-1967