The Hindenburg had a pressurized, airlock-sealed smoking room with a single electric lighter, despite carrying 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas.
Key Takeaways
The smoking room on B Deck was kept at higher pressure than the rest of the ship, with double-door airlock entry to prevent hydrogen ingress.
Only one electric lighter was permitted ship-wide; matches and open flames were banned across the entire airship.
The pressurization was partly a PR move: hydrogen rises, so the bottom-deck location was naturally low-risk except for a leak in Bay 12 directly adjacent.
The real danger was fire in the passenger section spreading upward to the gas cells, not hydrogen sinking into the smoking room.
The room doubled as the ship’s bar, making it the most popular space aboard.
