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Introduction to Balloons

The word ‘Balloons’ conjures up pictures in your mind of simple balloons you blow up for children’s parties, or balloons that fly off on their own, or the special balloons for key events like the ones produced for the wedding of Charles and Diana? There are so many different types of balloons available 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-flexible material but modern dayballoons have great elasticity because they are made of Latex and can be pumped up to create much larger sizes than earlier ones. Balloons come in many different sizes and colours and can brighten up any event and promote a festive atmosphere.

History of Balloons

The first known balloons were very primitive in that they were made out of the bowels of cats. 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. Early balloons were made of animal guts and were turned into play things for the local children.

The first public demonstration of a balloon was at the Portuguese Court in Lisbon in seventeen hundred and nine by a Portuguese priest, Bartolomeu de Gusmao, and was most likely to be made from an animal bladder that stretched when filled with air. The modern rubber balloon was invented in eighteen twenty four 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 science experiments with Hydrogen, but the more familiar Latex balloon did not appear until eighteen forty seven. Although the Latex balloon was manufactured in London in the mid 1800’s and early rubber balloons were sold in America in parks and circuses for a penny each; the mass production of them did not occur until a hundred years later in nineteen thirty one.

The world of balloons became more advanced as they developed in line with technology. Now balloons are made from rubber Latex, polychloroprene or nylon and may be inflated 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. Balloons are usually used for entertainment or displays.

Some balloons are purely for decoration, others are ideal for individual uses 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. There are many different types of balloons which can be categorised under different headings.

Different Balloon Types

Good Old Party Balloons

The most popular types of balloons are the ones we are used to seeing at parties, particularly a child’s party. These are usually bought in small packets and blown up by Mum’s and Dad’s 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 cluster of balloons 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 inflated. Party balloons are mostly made of natural Latex tapped from rubber trees. The rubber’s elasticity makes the dimensions variable. Balloons filled with air always hold their size and shape much longer than those filled with Helium.This is because Helium particles are so small they can escape between the Latex molecules, apparently!

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. Giant balloons will make a brilliant feature of children’s parties to help make it an exciting event.

Balloons made of Foil

The foil balloon or Mylar balloons first appeared during the late 1970s. They are slightly more high priced than Latex balloons and are made of thin non-stretch metalized plastic film or Mylar. The first time I had ever seen them was when they were used at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and they caused quite a stir. Mylar balloons have a nice high gloss reflective surfaces and can be supplied with colour pictures, logos and designs to customise them. The most important property of metalized nylon for balloons is its ability to prevent the Helium gas from leaking for several weeks because it is less porus. Foil balloons also have the advantage of being light weight, longer-lasting with greater buoyancy. They are perfect for special celebrations, in-store displays, parties and for gifts. At our granny’s 90′th birthday celebration recently my son’s girlfriend brought along a foil balloon with 90 printed on it to add to the party atmosphere.

Animal-Shaped Balloons

Balloons in animal shapes are ade from metalized nylon which can easily be cut into pieces so that when stuck 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 unique pieces make a very bright decorative show for that special event. Animal shaped balloons may be used as gifts or as a talking point at your special event. Balloons in animal shapes can make a great birthday gift for a child as an extra indulgence.

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 all but the really stone faced falling about laughing as it speeds around the room. This demonstration is teaching the children basically how a rocket works and they are called balloon rockets. As a child I can remember being enthralled as I learned why it did that.

When the mouth of the balloon is released, the balloon contracts so that the greater pressure of air inside is forced out causing the balloon to be propelled forward. This is in effect how a rocket works. The balloon can also be filled with different gases other than air, producing the same results. Balloon rockets are a widely used a learning aid to show the principles in laws of nature of the functioning of a rocket. The balloon rocket is also often used to demonstrate Newton’s third law in physics. Children can have hours of fun playing with balloons as a balloon rocket. The unpredictability of where they will go adds excitement to the activity.

Water Balloons

The water balloons are obviously filled with water and are intended for youngsters to throw at each other as a game or practical joke with the aim of getting each other drenched. They are generally not as big as normal sized balloons and made from thiner rubber so that they can be easily broken.

Balloons Filled with Helium Gas

The reason Helium balloons float in to the sky is because they are filled with Helium gas which is less dense than air. So for an event where balloons are set off into the atmosphere, 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 pores that are bigger than the enclosed Helium atoms so the Helium gradually seeps out. To increase the float time 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. As the name suggests Helium balloons means that the balloons are filled with Helium instead of air so that they rise up and float away.

Balloon Sculptures
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 a bit more challenging, but on occasion more ambitious sculptures have been constructed 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 shape of the balloons but with intelligent colour choice simple arches or walls can make an impressive design at your gathering. The balloons need to be precision filled with exactly the same amount of gas and to do this professional balloon party decorators use precision pumps to deliver the exact amount of Helium into the balloon. For non-floating balloons air inflators are used. Professional grade balloons differ from most retail packet balloons as they are bigger in size, stronger and made from one hundred percent biodegradable Latex. Sometimes Helium balloons are used as table decorations for grand dinner parties which may have three or 5 balloons with an arrangement of flowers. The decoration will generally include curled ribbon with an added weight to stop the balloons from floating away.

Modelling and Art with Balloons

Balloon modelling is a fantastic entertainment for children and adults alike and should be confused with balloon sculptures discussed previously. The Latex employed by balloon modellers is made of extra-stretchy rubber so that it can be manipulated and tied without bursting when making the balloon model. A Balloon modelling artist twists and ties the inflated modelling balloons into shapes of animals, people or hats. When I have watched these artists at work I am always anxious that the balloons will burst when they are twisting and tying their handy work. These tiny tubular balloons are extremely hard to inflate and usually need a pump to get them started.

Dropping Lots of Balloons from a Net

Most people have seen 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 party guests. This is called 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 budget way of generating a festive atmosphere at the party climax, so everyone goes away feeling they have had a really good time. By printing messages or logos on the balloons they can also be an advertising tool at the event.

It is easy enough to setup your own balloon drop for your special event providing you have a room with enough height. 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 inflating balloons as it can take a long time to do the number needed. Then insert the inflated balloons into the container and make sure the opening is central so that the balloons will fall onto the target area below when they are released. You will also need to develop a mechanism for releasing the balloons. Balloon drops may also be used for many other celebrations, such as graduations and weddings.
Balloon decorators often create several balloons arches for that really grand entrance.

Balloon Releases

Due to concerns about the impact on the environment of a large number of balloons being released, the NABAS – The Balloon Association have produced a code of practise that is available on their website at www.nabas.co.uk

If you are preparing a balloon release in excess of 5,000 balloons, it is a condition that you apply in writing for permission to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) at least 28 days in advance. The CAA also like to be notified about balloon releases involving less than 5,000. An application form can be acquired 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 grown in certain regions of the tropics, so balloons are completely environmentally friendly being manufactured from natural rubber Latex (NRL). These trees are not harvested to produce the NRL. The NRL is released by tapping older plants and is an vital sustainable crop providing jobs for many agricultural workers in some of the poorest areas of the world. Latex is a sustainable crop that is not harmful to the environment and the economy of the country in which the rubber trees grow.

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 might easily become just another sufferer of the clearance of land for arable use. One of the great benefits of NRL cultivation is the considerable contribution to the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere that is produced by industrialised nations and is a major source of global warming.

Printed Latex balloons are an absolutely fantastic, low-cost and environmentally friendly way of advertising your promotion or event.

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 resource 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.

When you think about it balloons are a major part of modern day life, did you realise?

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