"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...

http://www.scientificsonline.com/cat...ult/?q=balloon

Jeez, all those toys....

No hot-air tissue balloons like the ones they used to sell, though.
And the prices are pretty steep.
Ed Huntress

I made my paper balloons from instructions in a magazine that
described how to lay out the gore pattern for a sphere.

Polyethylene cleaners bags worked almost as well for minimal effort,
and didn't alarm the neighborhood with a bright flame when they
ignited. IIRC the ring was split bamboo and the cross wires were
strands of picture hanging wire. I hung them on a tall stake to
inflate them with a tiny campfire and then put alcohol-soaked cotton
balls in the aluminum foil cup for the flight.

The flame made the balloon glow like a Japanese paper lantern. This is
a good description:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/Cas...cle.asp?ID=427

That one wasn't mine. At that time I was pulling my pranks in college
a few towns away.
A hot-air balloon could lift a few cells from a disassembled 9V
battery and these light bulbs :
http://www.advantagehobby.com/137114/MDP391/?pcat=1316
or series-string (low voltage) Christmas flashers.