ZUBBLES!!!

Z U B B L E S

For over ten years, researchers have battled to discover the way to make colored bubbles. [Not the bubble gum kind] Mission Accomplished!

Now they come in colors. Not that I expect them to be flavored i.e. red is cherry, green is lime, etc. I expect they still retain that extra special soap flavor.

But they actually have true color now! These aren’t the colors that a normal bubble would cause by refracting light. These are truly colored-purple, red, green, and more. It’s pretty cool looking.

Past experiments that infused color into the thin membrane of soap that forms a bubble have resulted in several mishaps-mostly due to what happens when the bubble pops. The chemicals used would stain practically everything, from clothing to faces. Chemical burns were not uncommon [youch].

Then there was the weight factor. The chemicals used for coloration would sink to the bottom of the bubble, weighing it down. And what’s a non-floating bubble worth? Not much.

Inventor Tim Kehoe carried many of these woes. He even managed to turn his eyeballs blue when an experimental bubble popped in his face.

Blue

The first colored bubble was invented in Kehoe’s kitchen; it was blue. He actually called his wife into the room to see the bubble because, after experimenting with hundreds of formulas over the years, he thought he was hallucinating. But this variation still carried a major issue: it stained everything it touched.

So he went back to the drawing board and after various other ventures [working for a toy firm] he started his own independent toy company with business partners Guy Haddleton.

Enter Ram Sabnis, a dye chemist who thought that Kehoe’s goal was obtainable. In February of 2005, he broke the code and devised a manner to create colored bubbles that easily washed away upon bursting and did not leave any residue behind.

Ta-da