Look What You Can Do With Bubbles!

Bubbles are the little elves of nature, but I’ll bet you have never considered what all you can do with them. Most people when they think of bubbles, think of soap. And it’s true, playing around with bubbles hardly existed before soap. It began in the 19th century when the Pear Soap Company of England made playing with bubbles popular, but the trick didn’t fully catch on until mid-20th century, when people started experimenting with implements other than bubble pipes to make truly bizarre bubbles.

You are at this very moment, surrounded with bubble toys! Bubbles can be made with string, cookie sheets, plastic bowls, jar lids, milk containers, kitchen utensils, branches and twigs and even with your two hands. I’m not talking about the simple round little bubbles children make with a circle wand, but huge big bubbles surrounding your entire family, hung from your ceiling, frightening the cat into bringing up the latest hair ball.

A bubble is simply a stretchy skin enclosing some air, like a balloon. If you blow up a balloon and then let it go, the skin shrinks, the air goes whooshing out amid amusing aerial flippancy, and the empty balloon falls to the floor. But a bubble – well, that’s another story! If you start to blow a bubble with a circle wand, and then stop, the bubble shrinks down to a flat circle to fit the wand. The tension that kept the balloon a sphere is lost when the balloon falls to the floor, but with a bubble the tension is always there, just waiting for you to expand it again. If you blow up the bubble and then interrupt the process by turning the wand quickly over, the tension inside tries to squeeze the bubble into the most economical shape possible – one that has the smallest surface area possible, for the volume of air it contains: a sphere.

Soap-skinned bubbles must have boundaries all around, or the surface tension will scatter them in tiny drops. A bubble is a clever container which has no boundaries. It’s like “A sheet folded to meet itself along all its sides. The air inside keeps the bubble from exploding into droplets.

One interesting thing about bubbles is that they have no color of their own. In that way they resemble rainbows and oil puddles in the street: they take their color from their surroundings – not surprising since they’re made of water! And you can make a bubble around yourself using a hula hoop, a few dozen jars of children’s bubble mix and small swimming pool. A calm day with no wind is called for, or a sheltered spot, and this trick must be done slowly, cautiously and carefully, like possums making love.

If you’re not happy with the bubble stuff bought for children, you might want to look into making your own. It’s a lot cheaper. Start with some Joy or Dawn detergent (you may need to mix and experiment to get the best result, particularly for a big bubble your Aunt Tillie can fit into. To ensure the bubble fits Aunt Tillie, add some glycerin, but beware, this stuff is expensive! If it’s too rich for your blood, try some white Karo syrup (in case Aunt Tillie may have to eat the bubble to get out!)

The water you use to make your bubbles is very important. Bubbles prance and preen when mixed with soft water, but hard water with iron in it makes them sink into a flat depression. If your tap water is polluted enough to hold flowers up by itself, buy some distilled water at the grocery store.

Here are a few recipes:

Detergent (Joy or Dawn): one part
Water: 15 parts
Glycerin or syrup .25 parts

Detergent (Joy or Dawn): one part
Water: 10 parts
Glycerin or syrup .25 parts

Detergent (Joy or Dawn): two parts (for SuperBubbles!)
Water: four parts
Glycerin one part

There’s even a machine you can buy online, called the “Bubblemill” which claims to produce a continuous flow of bubbles for over an hour with one filling. The thing is air driven, so it’s safe to use around children. It’s said to work with most bubble solutions.
These are colorful and sturdy. They range in price from $40 to $50.

BE FOREWARNED!

There are also ANTI-Bubbles! Soap bubbles are thin skins of liquid surrounding air, in air. An antibubble exists in water, and is a thin skin of air containing fluid. It is barely lighter than the surrounding liquid. Look for them! While ordinary air bubbles, such as children blow underwater, rise quickly to the surface, antibubbles take their own sweet time. Should the fluid inside be heavier than the water outside, the antibubble will sink, so don’t depend on it to hold you up if you’re going down for third time.

The things you can do with bubbles are incredible! How could you possibly have so much fun so cheaply! And be the hit of the neighborhood, too! Particularly recommended for parents who have just moved into the neighborhood – instant friends for your kids!