Smoky
Bubbles (How To make Smoke filled
Bubbles).
There are a number of ways to make smoke filled bubbles. In
the "old days" cigarette smoke was mainly used. These days,
you have the option of water vapor (especially vapor from
ultrasonic humidifiers), theatrical fog (glycol/glycerine
& water), "smoke" or "fog" in a can, commercial
smoke~bubble toys and cigarette smoke.
The Ghost
Bubble Maker by Spin Master Toys is but one commercially
available smoky bubble producing toy. They either include a
battery powered fan or have a hand powered fan to make the
bubbles form. Air shoots through a chamber which contains
the fog (which is produced when liquid fog juice is
squirted onto a heating element). I've not found many of
these that work well, and I wanted to make smoky bubbles so
I did some tinkering and came up with a couple of
inexpensive and easy to make "machines" you might be
interested in.
Smoke is usually
used when bubbling to show off particular forms or
individual bubble shapes inside a cluster of other clear
bubbles. It's also used in larger bubbles into which clear
bubbles are blown. Tom Noddy I believe was the first to use
smoke. I remember seeing him blow a smoke cube on the
Carson show years ago, and I was spellbound.
When tackling this problem a few things come to mind; How
to make the smoke, how to contain it, how to deliver it and
how to control it's delivery. Well, I work for family
audiences so even though Pep Bou uses a cigarette, I can't.
Water vapor is short lived, difficult to produce
(relatively) and makes bubbles heavy. Canned fog/smoke is
expensive and difficult to deliver. Stage/theatrical fog is
the answer.
None of the
commercial smoke-bubble machines generate enough fog to
capture it in a large container so I've been working with
two other kinds of fog producing machines. The Wizard Stick
by Zero Toys (www.zerotoys.com/shown at right) and a larger
semi-pro stage fogger.
The Wizard
Stick is inexpensive and produces a concentrated fog fast
enough to contain in a small container. I use a clear
gallon sized water bottle. If I tilt the bottle and put the
wizard stick in and fire it up, the fog will fill the
bottle in about ten seconds and because fog is heavy, it
sinks to the bottom.
After it's
capped, the fog will remain smoky looking for a few
minutes. Long enough to be used. Through the cap of the
bottle two plastic (aquarium bubbler) tubes enter. One of
the tubes extends to the bottom of the bottle. The smoke
comes out of this tube and I use the other end of that tube
as I would a straw to make bubbles or inject the fog into
bubbles. The second tube extends a few inches below the
cap.
That's the tube I breath through when I need smoke to come
out of the other tube. Remember, fog is heavy so make sure
the "out" tube extends to the bottom of the bottle.
The second
machine for producing smoky bubbles I call the bellows. The
container I use is a 5 gallon collapsable water jug with a
"twist on/off" spigot. You will find these jugs in the
camping dept. The volume of smoke needed to fill it is too
great for the wizard stick, so I use a semi-pro theatrical
smoke machine. This is plugged into the wall and takes
about 4 or 5 minutes to warm up.
There's a
trigger device that I quickly press once and the jug is
instantly filled with dense white fog. Much more dense than
with the wizard stick. And since this machine heats the fog
juice to a much higher temperature, the fog stays smoky for
much longer. After you cap the jug, you need to find a tube
or short hose that fits the spigot snugly. When it's time
to deliver the fog, I twist the spigot to the "on" position
and squeeze the jug gently. These bubbles come out nice and
white.
Don't forget,
for both machines, to dip the "bubble end" of the tube
you'll be producing bubbles with into solution before you
start bubbling.
Click here to see a short video of my
(Wizard Stick) smoke machine #1.
Click Here to see a short video of my
(semi-pro) smoke machine #2.
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