Maker of Monster Sized Bubbles! I'm excited to be in contact with Alan, and hope to include more from him in the near future. Until then, I'll share with you some of his story. Following the video is an email, received March 20, 2006. Enjoy!
Here is a 2008 video montage of Alan's bubbles.
Alan McKay Video Montage
March 2008
Posted with his permission.
© 2008 Alan McKay
Information by clip:
1. Here's a view of my city, Wellington; with a bubblething bubble.
2. The sounds are of birds in the early morning overlooking Wellington Harbour
3. A bubble-thing clip!
4. It's cool when the sun sparkles off a bubble, this was made last year with Jumbo Juice mixture.
5. In calm weather the waterfront is a good location for seeing reflections and colours on bubbles and bubble-domes that form on the water (or sometimes bubbles bounce)
6. This is where I figured a loop with 17ft sides may be more practical; but two people could operate a larger loop I think.
The bubble looked awesome though was only say 10-11ft wide so would need to have been drawn three times longer through the air and sealed to have a chance at becoming a sphere of 20ft diameter. Pushing the limits here (though not with my best mixture; this was 2007 Dawn Original Scent to 20 parts distilled water and probably about 0.5 % special ingredient, also with probably about 0.5% glycerine) (temperature probably 6 C (44F) humidity 100%).
The walls of film towered up into the sky; I have a system for mounting the little digital camera on a hat to try to get a dramatic view in future of what these film walls look like up close...
7. Another big bubble
8. This bubble, once I made a more narrow tube beside it; the high pressure air in the tube flowed into the bubble, inflating it like a balloon. The tube (tube sealed as part of main bubble) became smaller, then broke off. But this caused the bubble to break. This is where Jumbo Juice, or a self-healing mixture, can save a bubble!
I walked over to the bubble and saw the drama as the neck connecting the tube became smaller. The sphere seemed at least 11ft.
The trick is to have a self-healing mixture that still allows no limit bubble expansion....
I'll try to send the story about how I got into bubbles in due course.
In brief: one day in 1994 I think; my sister's young children were visiting our parents. I decided to to try and make some bubbles for them for fun. I made a wand by cutting out some plastic from an ice-cream carton. The dishwashing liquid I used wasn't that great.
I found out about the idea that a little glycerine added helps to make the bubbles longer lasting and more colourful.
I discovered that the still cool moist air of dewy Autumn (Fall) mornings made great bubbles with a plastic-coated wire coathanger. My sister and I got bubbles up to 50cm. How to make a bigger hoop? I didn't have a big enough mixture tray. I tried placing water in a wheelbarrow and covering it with plastic to make a large shallow tray; where wire from two coat-hangers would make a bigger hoop.
About then my sister's husband said there was this book (David Stein's "Unbelievable Bubble Book") where bubbles were made with a "rope-like" material that could collapse down in to a smaller mixture container.
Before I even saw the book I tried threading about ten plastic drinking straws togther to make a large flexible hoop; and got my first one metre (3ft) diameter bubble.
There were pictures in his book of bubbles made with a bigger "bubblething" than the one that came with the book.
I wanted to make bubbles as big as the ones in the pictures in David Stein's book.
I could not find the special "ladder-weave" braided fabric in the shops.
I started experimenting with other materials, including lace (too light); metal chain (as he talks about in the original book) (too heavy) and other ideas. One day a particular combination chain loop (some metal, some plastic) produced a very stable 36 ft long bubble tube (fully sealed possibly; have to check notes). According to C.V. Boys book; bubbles longer than (If I recall right) pi times their diameter are inherrently
unstable and break up into spheres. Water from a hose also breaks up into drops, C.V. Boys explains in his book.
REST OF STORY LATER (over time, I made a number of major breakthroughs in equipment design leading to world-record bubbles and fully sealed free spheres up to 14ft diameter (fully round) or not-fully round with largest diameter up to 19ft and the potential for fully sealed tubular bubbles over 50ft long).
More info. later.
-Alan
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, August 10, 1996
BLOWER BURSTS BUBBLE RECORD
Reuters, Dateline: WELLINGTON, New Zealand
A New Zealand man says he has beaten the world record by blowing a 113-foot-long bubble.
Alan McKay, 34, said he had photographic evidence and two witnesses to back his claim. The 1994 edition of the Guinness Book of Records lists David Stein of New York City as creating a 50-foot bubble on June 6, 1988.
McKay would not reveal the secret of blowing big bubbles because he plans to sell the process. ''I've changed the boundaries of what children can achieve for bubbles,'' he said.
Record Number: 9608110081