Coloured bubbles

My wife had a doctor appointment yesterday. While we sat in the waiting room, we flipped through some of the old Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines that they had in the waiting room. We had a good laugh at some of the "new" products of 1995 and how they've changed in the last 13 years.

After a long wait, my wife's name was called, leaving me alone to continue reading these wonder magazines. :) I found a more recent Popular Science magazine from 1995 and started flipping through it. It wasn't long before something caught my eye.

Coloured bubbles.

I've never seen a coloured bubble before. But how is this worthy of Popular Science? Surely it can't be that difficult to create? Apparently, it is.

I started reading the article. It took Tim Kehoe 11 years to perfect, and that was before this article was written in 2005. The article went on to say that in the toy industry, where the average shelf life of a toy is 18 months, bubbles are "the juggernaut". In 1995, 200 million bottles of bubbles were being sold every year. With a coloured bubbles, they could enter entirely new markets.

So, it would appear that coloured bubbles could be HUGE.

"Picture bubbles in NFL team colors, or bubbles that match charity ribbons. The potential market would grow to include every man, woman and child."

Unfortunately my wife was ready to leave before I was able to finish reading the article. :(

I did a quick search this afternoon and found the web site for the company and the product. The product is called Zubbles. I was rather shocked to see that they're still not available for sale. 13 years ago they were perfected and yet you still can't buy them? I guess that's why I've never seen them.

I also found the article online: The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles

It's worth reading. I'm sure you non-chemistry types are also curious about why colouring a bubble isn't as easy as it sounds. :)