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Introduction to Balloons

The word ‘Balloons’ conjures up thoughts in your mind of simple balloons you inflate for kid’s parties, or balloons that fly off on their own, or the special balloons for big events like the ones produced for the wedding of Charles and Diana? There are so many different types of balloons on the market that you can get almost anything for any event you need. Balloons are a bright, bouncy item that can be used for many different purposes, including kid’s or adult parties, product launches for advertising or promotional events.
When you think about it, a balloon is a very strange item. It is something that stretches when filled with air or some other type of gas, such as Helium or hydrogen and is very fragile so that it can easily burst. The very early balloons would have been made with non-elastic material but modern dayballoons have great elasticity because they are made of Latex and can be filled up to create much larger sizes than earlier ones. Balloons come in many different sizes and colours and can brighten up any event and provide a festive atmosphere.

History of Balloons

The initial known balloons were very primitive in that they were made out of the bowels of animals. The Aztec Indians in Central and Southern America carefully cleaned out the cat gut, turned it inside out and sewed it with special vegetable thread that stuck to itself when dried in the sun creating an almost airtight seal. The balloons were shaped into model animals and then filled with air to be burnt on the top of the Aztec pyramid as an offering to the sun god. This is the first recorded history of balloon modelling.

The first public exhibition of a balloon was at the Portuguese Court in Lisbon in seventeen hundred and nine by a Portuguese priest, Bartolomeu de Gusmao, and was probably likely to be made from an animal bladder that stretched when filled with air. The modern rubber balloon was invented in 1824 by Michael Faraday the renowned English chemist and physicist who invented, amongst other many other things, the Faraday cage and he also made huge contributions to the fields electromagnetism and electrochemistry. The balloons Faraday used were filled with hydrogen for his experiments with Hydrogen, but the more everyday Latex balloon did not appear until 1847. Although the Latex balloon was manufactured in London in the mid eighteen hundreds and early rubber balloons were sold in America in parks and circuses for a penny each; the mass production of them did not appear until a hundred years later in 1931.

The balloon industry became more advanced as they developed in line with technology. Now balloons are made from rubber Latex, polychloroprene or nylon and may be filled with air, Helium, hydrogen or water. Filling the balloon with air can be done with the mouth, a manual hand pump, electric inflator, foot pump or with compressed gas. Balloons are used for many differing purposes, and decorated in numerous ways to suit the event.

Some balloons are purely for decorative reasons, others are ideal for individual purposes because of their low density and relatively low cost. The balloon’s properties have led to them being used in a wide range of other applications in the areas of meteorology, military defence, medical treatment, and transportation.

Different Balloon Types

Balloons for Parties

The most familiar types of balloons are the ones we are used to seeing at parties, generally a child’s party. These are frequently bought in small packets and blown up by volunteers or with a pump to create a festive scene for children’s parties and other kinds of celebratory events. These days you often see a balloon cluster at the entrance to a house or hall to indicate where the party is being held, it has almost become a universal indicator of a party in progress! The balloons come in many different sizes and colours and can have printing on them which expands as the balloon is blown up. Party balloons are usually made of natural Latex tapped from rubber trees. The rubber’s elasticity makes the volume variable. Balloons filled with air usually hold their size and shape much longer than those filled with Helium.

There is a great range of colours for balloons and many different sizes due to the flexibility of the material from which they are made. A company that provides Helium balloons will always be able to deliver balloon gas to enable you to inflate the balloons on the day.

Foil Balloons

The foil balloon or Mylar balloons first appeared during the late 1970s. They are slightly more costly than Latex balloons and are made of thin non-stretch metalized plastic film or Mylar. The first time I remember them being used a major event was when they were used at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer and they caused quite a stir. These balloons have a nice high gloss reflective texture and can be supplied with colour images, branding and designs to customise them. The most crucial characteristic of metalized nylon for balloons is its capacity to retain the Helium gas from leaking for several weeks because it is less permeable. Foil balloons also have the benefit of being light weight, longer-lasting with better buoyancy. They are best for special celebrations, in-store displays, parties and for gifts. At our granny’s 90′th birthday celebration last month my son’s girlfriend brought along a foil balloon with 90 printed on it to add to the festive occasion.Mylar balloons or foil balloons can also be made into interesting shapes and can be printed with designs to advertise an event.

Balloons Shaped as Animals

Balloons in animal shapes are ade from metalized nylon which can easily be cut into pieces so that when pressed together they make the three dimensional shapes of animals. Screen printing the appropriate design on the model, makes the chosen animal come realistically alive. Once inflated, these spectacular pieces make a very bright decorative show for that special event. Balloons in animal shapes may be used as gifts or as a talking point at your special event.

Rockets from Balloons

Blowing up a balloon and letting it go without tying it is as game most kids enjoy at some time or another (and adults too)! The rude noise it makes usually has most people falling about laughing as it shoots about the building in a random manner. This demonstration is an experiment in how a rocket works and they are called balloon rockets. As a youngster I can remember being enthralled as I learned how they worked.

When the mouth of the balloon is released, the elasticity of the balloon contracts so that the greater pressure of air inside is forced out causing the balloon to be propelled forward. This is effectively how a rocket works. The balloon can also be filled with different gases other than air, providing the same effect. Balloon rockets are a widely used a learning aid to reveal the principles in laws of nature of the operation of a rocket. The balloon rocket is also regularly used to demonstrate Newton’s third law in physics.

Balloons and Water

The water balloons are obviously filled with water and are intended for children to throw at each other as a game or practical joke with the aim of getting each other wet. They are generally not as big as regular balloons and made from thiner rubber so that they can be easily broken. Water balloons are often used in competitions or games.

Balloons Filled with Helium Gas

The reason Helium balloons float upwards is because they are filled with Helium gas which is lighter than air. So for an event where balloons are set off into the air, they will all be Helium filled balloons. If the Helium balloons are rubber balloons they typically only retain their buoyancy for a few days. This is because the Latex has tiny holes that are bigger than the enclosed Helium atoms so the Helium gradually seeps out. To increase the buoyancy period of a Helium balloon the inside of the balloons can be coated with a special polymer solution which reduces the leakage of the Helium for a week or more. Having even just one foil Helium filled balloon at a small party can create a special effect to enhance the occasion.Balloon races can only be done with Helium balloons. If air filled balloons were used they would never get off the ground.

Balloon Sculpting
Balloon Sculptures are made from 100’s of balloons to create a solid structure such as a balloon arch, wall or statute. Other shapes are more difficult, but on occasion more ambitious sculptures have been built so they are possible. These sculptures are usually made and designed by professional party decorators as it is a skilled job. Balloon sculptures are really quite constrained because of the round shape of the balloons but with intelligent colour choice simple arches or walls can make an impressive feature at your special event. The balloons need to be precision filled with exactly the same amount of gas and to do this professional balloon sculptors use precision pumps to deliver the exact amount of Helium into the balloon. For non-floating balloons air inflators are used. Professional quality balloons differ from most retail packet balloons as they are larger in size, stronger and made from one hundred percent biodegradable Latex. Sometimes Helium balloons are used as table decorations for special events which may have three or five balloons with an arrangement of flowers. The decoration will usually include curled ribbon tied to a weight to keep the balloons on the table.

Modelling and Art with Balloons

Balloon modelling is a popular entertainment for children and adults alike and should be confused with balloon sculptures discussed above. The Latex used for balloon modelling is made of extra-stretchy rubber so that it can be twisted and shaped and tied without bursting when making the balloon model. A Balloon modelling artist pulls and twists the inflated modelling balloons into shapes of animals, people or hats. When you watch a balloon modeller at work you half expect that the balloons will pop when they are twisting and tying their creations. These tiny tubular balloons are extremely tricky to inflate and often need a pump to get them started, until you have developed the lungs for it.

Balloon Drops

I am sure you will have been to a party or dance where at the end of the night a load of balloons fall from the ceiling to create excitement and fun amongst the audience. This is known as a balloon drop and is often performed at events such as New Year’s Eve celebrations or at political rallies and conventions. It is a relatively low cost way of creating a festive atmosphere at the party climax, so everyone goes home feeling they have had a really great evening. By printing messages or logos on the balloons they can also be an advertising tool at the event.

It is easy enough to create your own balloon drop for your special event providing you have a room with high enough ceilings. Firstly you will need to set up a large plastic bag or net overhead, which is suspended at the required height. Get your assistants to help with blowing up balloons as it can take a long time to do the number needed. Then pile the inflated balloons into the container and make sure the opening works so that the balloons will fall onto the target area below when they are let go. You will also need to develop a mechanism for releasing the balloons. Balloon drops Can also be used for many other celebrations, including graduations and weddings.
That special event can be made more spectacular by installing balloons arches particularly when used to create a grand entrance.

Releasing Balloons on Mass

Because of concerns about the effect on the environment of a large amount of balloons being released, the NABAS - The Balloon Association have produced a code of conduct that is available on their website at www.nabas.co.uk

If you are arranging a balloon release involving 5,000 balloons, it is a requirement that you apply in writing for permission to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) at least 28 days before the event. The CAA also like to be informed of balloon races involving less than 5,000. An application form can be obtained by calling either the NABAS office on 01989 762 204 or the Airspace Utilisation Section of the CAA on 020 7453 6599

Balloons, the Environment and Balloon Safety

Latex is an organic product from rubber trees that are cultivated in certain regions of the tropics, so balloons are completely environmentally friendly being made of natural rubber Latex (NRL). These trees are not cut down to extract the NRL. The NRL is harvested by tapping older plants and is an vital sustainable crop providing employment for many agricultural workers in some of the poorest regions of the world. Latex is a sustainable crop that is good for the environment and the economy of the country in which the rubber trees are grown.

The planting and maintenance of rubber tree plantations helps towards the prevention of tropical rainforest deforestation. Without the cultivation and the consumption of Latex products the plantations may very well become just another object of the clearance of land for arable use. One of the great advantages of NRL cultivation is the appreciable contribution to the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere that is produced by industrialised nations and is a major source of global warming. The tropical regions in which rubber trees grow are often in some of the poorest parts of the world, so an industry from such a sustainable source is a vital income for the population.

Conclusion

The toy balloon has been a source of happiness and excitement for many years at celebratory events such as parties, product launches and conferences throughout the world. They have been an educational tool as well as providing hours of fun and interest for children and adults alike. Non toy balloons are used for experiments in science, as an aid for heart repair in medicine and even as a form of travel as in the hydrogen air ship idea. Balloons are invaluable in helping us to learn about our world and some of the properties of physics.

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