Colored Bubbles

C o l o r e d bubbles. Coooooool.

... it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color

[ The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles, Popular Science, Dec. 2005 issue ]

Eleven years, half a million dollars, innumerable dye-stains, chemical burns, ruined clothes, and noxious fumes later... one of the toy industry's long-sought technical breakthroughs has become a reality — nonstaining colored bubble solution.

Colored soap bubbles! Of course! Everyone loves blowing bubbles. It seemed such a simple and perfect idea, the kind that would leave other inventors slapping their foreheads and saying Why didn't I think of that? [Tim] Kehoe says, "I remember walking down to the store thinking, ‘This is so easy. I'm going to be rich!' "

When I was a kid, we could buy a tube of plastic material. Put a blob on the end of a plastic straw and blow a lasting 'bubble" or marbled colored plastic. Don't inhale.

We also had some nifty pink powder to which you added water, then blew out bubbles with your mouth. Rather like bubble gum but don't put it in your mouth! (I used to get a rash from this one).

But soap bubbles. Now, soap bubbles are special. They float, they linger, they catch the light, and then, they're gone. I can almost understand the fascination of spending eleven years searching for a colored soap bubble.

Kehoe's bubble would radiate a single, vibrant hue throughout the entire sphere—a green bubble, an orange bubble, a hot-pink bubble. It's a bubble that can make CEOs giggle and stunned mothers tear up in awe. It's a bubble you don't expect to see, conditioned as you are to the notion that soap bubbles are clear. An unnaturally beautiful bubble.

Tim Kehoe's first success came nine years ago. It was a perfect, colored bubble. The toy company execs loved it. But when it broke, the dye stained everything it touched. So back to the drawing board... for nine more years!

Kehoe got financial backing and hired a dye chemist.

The secret to nonstaining colored bubbles, it turns out, is a dye that could unlock a revolution in color chemistry. All you need to do is make color disappear.

Apparently, it works a lot like whiteboard markers (on whiteboards) or disappearing ink...

a dye that would bond to the surfactants in a bubble to give it bright, vivid color but would also lose its color with friction, water or exposure to air—not fade, not transfer to something else, but go away completely, as though it had never been there. When one of these bubbles breaks on your hand, rub your hands together a few times and look: Poof. Magic. No more color. If the bubble breaks on your shirt or the carpet or the dog, you have two choices: Dab it with a touch of plain water to remove it immediately, or forget about it for half an hour. Either way, the color will soon be gone.

Wow. According to the article, colored bubbles will hit shelves this February, if not sooner, under the brand name "Zubbles." Watch for them. I will...

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Speaking of bubbles... I wonder how the cats will like these. Did you know that cats really like to watch, chase, and pounce soap bubbles? You can even buy catnip-scented bubble liquid. Check it out.

Colored Bubbles ( in category SciTech ) - posted at Fri, 18 Nov, 13:29 Pacific | «e»