Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 22:15:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Balzer <mbalzer@balloonhq.com>
To: balloondeco@balloonhq.com
Subject: Re: suggestions


>> 3) High-float & helium is not used here. Only hydrogen gas is used to
>> make the balloons float.
>
>I need a chemistry lesson.....hydrogen? and they float?
>I got the impression that helium was the only gas available for floating
>
>Mark--I am sure you have the answer here.....break it to me gently
>please!

For shame, Melanie... don't you know your balloon history?  :-)  :-)

Yes, hydrogen filled balloons do indeed float.  The very first
lighter-than-air rubber balloon ever made (by scientist Michael Faraday in
1824) was filled with hydrogen that he produced in his experiments!

In the Quarterly Journal of Science that year Faraday wrote:

     The caoutchouc (rubber) is exceedingly elastic. Bags 
     made of it...have been expanded by having air forced 
     into them, until the caoutchouc was quite transparent, 
     and when expanded by hydrogen they were so light as to
     form balloons with considerable ascending power....


>Hydogen is the lightest of gases and highly explosive.

Indeed, hydrogen is the lightest.  But hydrogen is not one of those
chemicals that are explosive all by themselves.  It's just like propane or
natural gas.  Flammable, yes.  Explosive, no.  Only in the presence of an
oxidizer do you need to be careful with it.  (Of course, one fifth of air
happens to be a pretty good oxidizer  :-)


>Lighter than helium, this gas is very volatile

If we use the chemistry major's definition of volatile (as opposed to the
english major's definition) I agree.  You don't see much liquid hydrogen
laying around, unless you call the space shuttle's fuel tank home
(volatile = evaporating readily at normal temperatures and pressures).


For some reason I can't find the posts, but I know that we had a
discussion about a year ago which started when someone in the Phillipines
(I think?) reported that hydrogen was commonly used because helium was so
expensive.  (This practice was universally decried at the time... by those
who could afford helium  :-)

It's really a shame that hydrogen-filled balloons are so dangerous,
because there are inexhaustible supplies of it.  However, this world has
only a finite supply of helium and once it's gone, that's it.  For a great
number of industrial, aerospace, and medical processes, there is simply no
replacement for helium. Someday the human race is really going to regret
squandering this resource.

I hope this helps,

Mark