All about Balloons

Image Credit: Flickr User ewan traveler, via CC

Any celebration is incomplete without the balloons. They have become an integral part of any festivity. Little children squeal with joy while holding the balloon in their hands, the elder kids, can’t stop bobbing it.

Do you know how they were discovered and what all different kinds of balloons are used today?

The first balloons had nothing to do with fun. They were made by a famous scientist Michael Faraday in 1824 for his experiments with gases. He made elastic bags and filled them with different gases and studied them. Faraday made his balloons by cutting round two sheets of rubber laid together and pressing the edges together. The edges of the rubber sheets stuck, the rest of the balloon was rubbed with flour to prevent the opposing surfaces from getting stuck.

An year later the toy balloons were manufactured. At first these balloons were filled with air.

Even you play with the air balloons. You could blow the air in this balloon and play with it. It is as light as feather and can be tossed around anyway you want. If you throw it in the air, it will come right back to you.

Long before there were toy balloons, giant balloons lifted people in the air. The flight that took place in the skies of Paris, France carried a duck, a sheep and a rooster. After testing a lot of unmanned flights the first man to board a giant balloon was Etienne Montgolfier on October 15, 1783. These balloons were filled with hot air and stayed afloat as long as the air stayed hot.

Today we have party balloons filled with air and Helium for decorative purposes. The Helium balloons stay afloat as helium is lighter than air.

Artists have been displaying their art on art balloons. They use extra stretchy rubber to model their balloons.

Advertising balloons — Image Credit: Flickr User Lee J Haywood, via CC

Many advertisers use balloons for publicizing their event or product. They can use a bunch of printed balloons or huge blimps.

Today the giant balloons are filled with Helium, this air machine floats with the wind.

We have a question for you. Do you think balloons are all about fun? Well, if your answer were yes, you would change your mind when you read this.

Specially made balloons are used in medical surgeries, to clear out clogged arteries or stop the internal organs from losing a lot of blood.
Huge balloons are used in scientific researches. Some are capable of carrying telescopes or even satellites!
Before world war II, Balloons were used as observation posts.

Do you know what is the sport or past time of flying in a balloon?

Ballooning!!

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Posted

July 29, 2013

Facts For Kids, Science

Kinooze Learning

Comments

2 responses to “All about Balloons”

Loise

July 7, 2017

If you’ve ever been to a party without balloons, then you might be forgiven for not getting into the party spirit. They are a cost effective way of adding a little colour and – well – fun to proceedings. Children love balloons – they are fun for bouncing up and down, kicking around like footballs and rubbing against your hair. But while we may be completely familiar with balloons themselves, we might not be so familiar with where this amazingly simple piece of technology actually comes from. This article is great, very informative.
Mason

May 21, 2018

They should probably add some more facts instead of just what balloons are made for but that’s just my opinion. Otherwise i thought it was a good site.