Who Made The Very First Balloon Animal?

The History of Balloons

"Papa," said Jack, "can't you make me a airship with this slice of whale entrail?"
- Johann David Wyss, Swiss Family unit Robinson (1813)

In that location seems to be more than information about the history of airship sculpting than almost the balloon itself. Balloon sculpting has only been around for a few decades then there are still enough of people around that remember its development.

Animal Bladders, and Intestines
Prophylactic Balloon Evolution
Foil Balloons
The Art of Airship Modeling
The Balloon Decorating Organizations and Conventions
The Commencement Airship Modeling Convention

Fauna Bladders, and Intestines

You can find mention in fairly old books of toys made out of water-filled animal bladders. Bladders apparently expand quite a bit (I oasis't tried.) Unfortunately I tin can't give y'all names of these books since that's near all I've been told past the various librarians I talked to. Every bit far as more mod books, there is a reference to a ball of this type in one of the Piddling Firm on the Prairie books. I recall it was "Piffling House in the Large Forest" almost the kickoff of the book. If you really desire to do the research I suggest yous look through literature written during the Renaissance in Europe. Merlin has found references indicating that balloon sculpting dates back at least as far as the Aztecs.

Prior to skinnies existence made out of rubber they may have been constructed out of intestine; presumably different animals would provide dissimilar diameters. The following is offered equally supporting evidence;

Swiss Family Robinson (1813) "Papa," said Jack, "can't you make me a balloon with this piece of whale entrail?"
Moby Dick (1851) [re sperm whales] "Gasses are generated in him; he swells to a prodigious magnitude; becomes a sort of beast balloon."

In the "olden days", especially in the European regions, jesters and troubadors (pardon my spelling) were said to sometimes inflate the entrails of recently butchered animals and "entertain" with them. The bladders, intestines, and sometimes the stomach, were strong plenty that, despite their thinness, they could be manipulated into amusing shapes.

From `Great Balloons! The Consummate Book of Airship Sculpting' by Jean Merlin, Kaufman and Greenberg, 1994

"...the Aztecs were the very first people in history to make animals out of the bowels of cats to be presented to the gods as a sacrifice. The bowels were carefully cleaned, turned inside out, and sewn with a special vegetable thread whose primary holding was that it stuck to itself when left to dry in the sun, and this produced an well-nigh closed seal.
The bowels were and so twisted and air was blown into them afterward each twist. When a particularly contagious illness exterminated most of the cats, they used the bowels of the corpses, and when these grew in short supply, human sacrifices were offered to the gods for the sole purpose of obtaining fresh bowels.

As Jacques Dupion Grouchard remarked in his beautiful book, The Mayannaise Connection, the uncomplicated making of one animal required several days. And at that place were only two models: the dog and a kind of donkey.

Once they had been made, the animals were carried (with great ceremony) to the top of the Aztec pyramid, where they were burned in praise of the sunday.

Strangely enough, within the pyramid of Mikerinos, 1 tin can come across drawings engraved in stone representing camels made of a serial of bubbling, most which Champollion says in his book The Rosetta Stone and Other Sidejobs: '...one wonders whether these figures of camels practice not stand for artifacts that were made out of camel's guts."

Only information technology is just with the advent of rubber that the Mexicans began manufacturing balloons intended for modeling. The most famous amongst them was Senor Carlos, who was the first to come over to Europe to perform his balloon sculpting act at the famous Lido de Paris."

Rubber Balloon Evolution

From The Book of Firsts past Patrick Robertson, Bramhall House, NY, 1978:

The start rubber balloons were made by Professor Michael Faraday in 1824 for use in his experiments with hydrogen at the Regal Institution in London. `The caoutchouc is exceedingly elastic', he wrote in the Quarterly Journal of Scientific discipline the same year. `Bags made of information technology...have been expanded past having air forced into them, until the caoutchouc was quite transparent, and when expanded by hydrogen they were so light as to course balloons with considerable ascending power....' Faraday made his balloons by cutting round two sheets of safety laid together and pressing the edges together. The tacky rubber welded automatically, and the within of the balloon was rubbed with flour to preclude the opposing surfaces joining together.
Toy balloons were introduced by pioneer rubber manufacturer Thomas Hancock the following year in the form of a exercise-it-yourself kit consisting of a bottle of rubber solution and a condensing syringe.

Vulcanized toy balloons, which unlike the earlier kind were unaffected past changes in temperature, were first manufactured by J.1000. Ingram of London in 1847 and can be regarded as the image of modern toy balloons."

An old issue of True Inflations said something about latex balloons at, I believe, a worlds off-white.

From the Oxford English Lexicon: (notation the 1827 reference to Faraday):

caoutchouc ('kaUtSUk), ('ku:-). [a. Fr. caoutchouc pron. (kautSu), ad. Carib cahuchu (Littre).]
one India-rubber, or Gum Elastic; the milky resinous juice of sure trees in Southward. America, the E. Indies, and elsewhere, which coagulates on exposure to the air, and becomes highly rubberband, and is waterproof; it is now a about important substance in arts and articles.

`Introduced to French republic early in the last century, but its origin was unknown till the visit of the French academicians to S America in 1735. They ascertained that it was the inspissated juice of a Brazilian tree, called by the natives Hhve; and an account of the discovery was sent to the academy by M. de la Condamine in 1736' (Penny Cycl.). Chiefly obtained from the Brazilian Siphonia elastica (Hevea caoutchouc) North.O. Euphorbiaceae, and E. Indian Ficus elastica. Only many other tropical plants, Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae, Artocarpads, and others, yield information technology in considerable quantity. Chemically it is equanimous entirely of carbon and hydrogen, but is non a simple proximate principle, only a mixture of substances.

1775 Phil. Trans. LXVI. 258 An rubberband gum bottle, otherwise chosen boradchio or caout-chouc. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXIX. 384, I take the tube out of the phial, and thrust it..into a small caoutchouck, or elastic gum bottle. 1788-ix HOWARD New Royal Encycl. south.v., Caoutchouc in natural history..a very elastic resin..Very useful for erasing the strokes of black pb pencils, and is popularly called rubber, and lead-eater. 1827 FARADAY Chem. Manip. four. 122 Cloth is rendered air-tight by caoutchouc. 1870 EMERSON Soc. & Sol., Work & Days Wks. (Bohn) III. 65 What of this dapper caoutchouc and gutta-percha, which makes water-pipes..and rain-proof coats for all climates? 1875 J. H. BENNET Shores Medit. I. i. 25 The secret of the luxuriant verdure [in the Euphorbia]..is the beingness of a kind of caoutchu in their white acid juices. 1863-72 WATTS Dict. Chem. I. 739 Sulphured or vulcanized caoutchouc is an excellent material for tubes for carrying water or gases.

From The house of Goodyear; l years of men and industry. by Allen, Hugh, 1882-

PUBL.: (Cleveland, Corday & Gross)
FORMAT: eleven, 691 p. illus., ports. 24 cm.
Date: 1949
Subject: Goodyear Tire and Condom Company, Akron, Ohio.
Tires, Prophylactic. Safe industry and trade
Linguistic communication: ENGLISH
RID #: ocm01090355
Chapter 8. Goodyear in Helmsmanship Nascency of the Balloon

In 1783, the year America won its independance, ii Frenchmen, brothers, sabbatum earlier a bonfire watching the fume curl lazily upward.
"I wonder what makes the smoke go up?" ane of them said.
"Peradventure warm air is lighter and the cold air pushes it upwardly," said the other.
"Then if we filled a bag with hot air it would fly!" said the first.

And then they built a 35 foot bag of waxed paper, attached a brazier of charcoal underneath, released information technology - and watched information technology mount into the air.

Aeronautics was built-in.

Discussion of this feat spread fast and far beyond France, reached the court, the Army, scientific men. They must stage another flight, in Paris. And then the Montgolier'southward next balloon took off from the courtyard at Versailles. Anybody in French republic who could get close enough saw it with his own eyes. But a immature dandy attached to the courtroom took a compression of snuff.

"After all, though," he said, "what good is it?"

The American ambassador caught it upwardly, with a reply that has come downward through history.

"Of what use is a baby?" said Benjamin Franklin.

Cheezo writes:
Nosotros did a New Year 2000 gig for a resort in the mountains of New Hamshire called The Balsams. This resort, complete with ski slope, is located on 15000 acres owned by Tillotson Rubber Visitor, the plant is on site and made balloons until recently when it moved operations to Fall River Ma. and formed a partition called Dipco. We received a flyer on the history of it all and this is what it said about Neil Tillotson and his balloons:

At the age of 16, Tillotson secured a chore at Hood Rubber Company in Boston and, returning there after a 2 year stint in the Seventh Calvary during Globe State of war I, he was the only one of 25 Hood chemists without a college caste. Withal his inventive talents earned him a identify in new product development with Hood: and when the offset shipment of raw latex reached Boston Harbor during the 1920's Tillotson began his lifelong association with the substance.
Hoods efforts with latex were unsuccessful at beginning, simply Tillotson persevered on his own. At his Watertown home, he designed and produced a latex balloon with a cat's confront and ears from a cardboard form which he cut purchase hand with a scissors. He managed to make his first sale of these balloons with an order of 15 gross to exist delivered for the annual Patriots 24-hour interval Parade on April 19, 1931. Tillotson put his family into production to meet the borderline while he continued his duties full time at Hood Rubber and worked at dwelling in the evenings on the balloons.

Tillotson incorporated his latex business in 1931 and left Hood the post-obit year. Depression tightened free money around Boston, so he bought an unlimited bus ticket which took him across the country in search of novelty company buyers for his new balloons. The nifty majority of those initial customers still buy balloons from Tillotson Rubber Company today. (Balloon sectionalisation named Dipco)

The final chapter in "The Corking Balloon Game Book" by Arnold E. Grummer is devoted to the history of balloons. The post-obit is reproduced with permission from:

The Peachy Balloon Game Book and More Balloon Activities
By Arnold E. Grummer
Original Edition
Published past Greg Markim, Inc., Appleton, Wisconsin, 1987
ISBN 0-938251-00-7

Long before in that location was something and then stretchy as condom, balloons were a fact. In the pre-safe era, balloons came from animal bladders. A pig'southward float was inflated by Galileo in an experiment to measure the weight of air. Inflated beast bladders were used in play by Indian and Eskimo children. Most of the bladders were from sea animals.
A airship was first made from condom in 1824. Professor Michael Faraday, in his piece of work at the Royal Institution in London, was experimenting with gases and raw rubber, called caoutchouc. In the Quarterly Periodical of Science in 1824 he wrote, "The caoutchouc is exceedingly elastic. Bags made of it ... take been expanded by having air forced into them, until the caoutchouc was quite transparent."

His piece of work was likewise probably the first joining of balloons with hydrogen. His journal article continued, "When expanded by hydrogen, they (the rubber numberless) were so light equally to form balloons with considerable ascending power."

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The showtime take a chance that people had to get a rubber balloon was in 1825. But they had to make the actual balloon themselves. The balloons came in the form of a kit. The kit was made up of ". . . a canteen of rubber solution and a condensing syringe." It was marketed by England's pioneer rubber manufacturer, Thomas Hancock.

Every bit early equally 1889, balloons could be bought past people in the United States. Montgomery Ward had them in their catalog that year. The catalog listed them every bit ". . . cherry-red rubber balloons with trumpet ends." The toll was 4 cents each or forty cents a dozen. The balloons were not made in the Us, just were probably imported from Kingdom of belgium.

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The first manufacture of balloons in the The states came in 1907. The manufacturer was the Anderson Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio.

In 1912 came a totally new thing for the balloon world. It was the manufacture of the get-go balloon that wasn't round. Information technology was cigar-shaped. The evolution has been credited to Harry Ross Gill, founder of the National Latex Condom Products of Ashland, Ohio.

Gill adult two other items. 1 was a dye that did not rub off on people's hands and faces. The other was marketing balloons in a packaged assortment, which was advertised as ". . . the first sanitary airship packet."

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In 1931, balloon technology leaped ahead when, according to an industry itemize, "Neil Tillotson dipped the start modern latex balloon made from the sap of a rubber tree." The itemize farther states that the balloon, shaped like a cat's head with pointed ears and a whisker-printed confront, was the globe's first novelty-shaped and printed balloon. Earlier that, balloons were made with difficulty and danger from a solvent-dissolved safety similar to safety cement. Tillotson founded the Tillotson Rubber Company which still makes balloons today.

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Typical of balloon developments through the years, are the following:

Radium balloon This balloon took on a solid color in a kickoff dipping. In a second dipping it took on a second colour in stripes.

Alligator balloon When particular solid color balloons were dipped into an acid, the balloon's color turned into two shades. This gave it an "alligator" look.

Squealer airship A balloon resembling a pig was made by pasting sheet safety ears and wooden legs onto an airship airship. Marketed through the Woolworth Co., it flopped. New packaging was designed. The sus scrofa balloon was put into an envelope. Its moving-picture show was printed on the outside. It was re-named "Hog in a Poke". Sales were a corking success ... through the Woolworth Co.

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Airship developments take included designing and making special balloons for special uses by particular individuals. One was for dancers. A small-scale foot pump was used to inflate the airship at a "critical" moment in the dance.

Ane of the dancers was Sally Rand at the Italian Village of the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair. The balloons she used were transparent. They inflated to v feet in diameter. They toll $28.50 each. A problem developed. The balloons burst at an embarrassing moment. A representative of the manufacturing company went to Chicago to run into if he could find the trouble'southward cause. He found it. It was a sure audience member who shot paper clips with a safety ring slingshot.

The trouble was cured past lowering a bulwark between the audience and the dancer. It was a mantle of silk that stopped paper clips and other missiles but did non stop the view.

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World War Two acquired the development of numerous special balloons. Ane was a model that inflated to five feet in diameter and twenty feet long. It was used as a target in the Ground forces's development of the "bazooka" anti-tank gun.

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Toy balloon developments after the war included a "2 in one". It was a head balloon inside a clear outer balloon.

Another was the "Bird of Paradise", which had an inflatable head, beak, and body. It sold well, but non every bit well as the subsequent "Decorated Bee", created when someone playfully wrapped a long balloon balloon around the cervix of the Bird of Paradise.

Another accidental discovery developed into a 1940'due south fad. It was a "Bub-O-Loon". It happened while Dr. Ferdinand Ringer was trying to develop a multiple strike match. The research included trying to accident air into a mass of vinylite resin in acetone. A bubble formed. Dr. Ringer establish that the bubble could be pinched off and saved. That led to masses of kids across the nation bravado through a harbinger-like tube into a tacky mass stuck on the end, forming their own airship. The multiple strike match was likewise successfully developed, but never gained acceptance.

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Hydrogen and helium have long been part of people's fascination with the airship world. The gases crusade balloons to ascension. Every bit noted above, hydrogen and balloons were first brought together by Faraday. Hydrogen brings a lot of play and joy to the balloon globe, but information technology brings an equal or greater amount of danger. It easily explodes and catches fire. Hydrogen-filled balloons can float to a site of combustible material, explode, and start a fire. They did.

As early as 1914, thoughtful firemen were trying to ban the employ of hydrogen in toy balloons because of the danger. In 1922, New York City banned hydrogen-filled toy balloons past official ordinance. The activity was taken after a prankster exploded hydrogen-filled balloon decorations at a city function, and an official was badly burned.

Merely in spite of the danger, hydrogen-filled balloons did deliver pleasure, chance, and teaching. A 1929 magazine reported that a Mickey Mouse balloon released from somewhere in the United States, startled a grouping of persons when it landed in Africa.

A youth in Pennsylvania received word that a balloon bearing his proper name had been picked up by a fisherman in Singapore.

The same year, balloon races launched in Chicago had returns from every bit far abroad as North Carolina and Virginia. Ane of the balloons in the race traveled 600 miles in less than twelve hours.

Educational activity and practical information come from probing air currents over the globe by means of hydrogen-filled balloons. This assisted early aviation.

Prior to the first World War, the probes were used to help devise formulas for ascension and flying of much larger balloons. This delivered information subsequently used to calculate altitude at which pilots could fly with the wind, adding to the aeroplane's speed.

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Hydrogen was somewhen replaced by helium. Though hydrogen had one-10th more than lifting ability, helium was safer.

The prophylactic made it possible for gas-filled balloons to be used in dramatic ways in advert. Helen Warny became a leader in this field. In the 1920's, she was founder of The Toy Balloon company in New York. She used luminous and other balloons in balloon showerettes, balloon-decked parade floats, and fashionable window displays. The superlative of her efforts came when she released 50,000 helium-filled balloons at one time. Each was printed with an advertiser's name and diameter a tag which offered a prize to the finder.

Some balloons today are especially designed for being filled with helium. They are self-sealing, which helps eliminate helium waste. They take their ain strings attached.

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The most recent large evolution in the balloon world is the industry of balloons from plastic. The balloons are called silvery mylars. They apparently concord helium longer than safe balloons do. They have surfaces that are excellent for receiving printing. The surfaces are also excellent for covering with vivid colors.

Today, the airship capital of the nation is Ohio, and the airship capital of Ohio is the urban center of Ashland. Of vi major manufacturers, 4 are located in Ohio, and of those four, two are located in Ashland. Ashland companies are the Ashland Safe Products Corporation and the National Latex Products Company. The two other Ohio companies are the Maple Urban center Rubber Visitor In Norwalk, and the Oak Condom Company in Ravenna. Elsewhere, the Pioneer Balloon Company is located In Wichita, Kansas, and the Tillotson Safety Co., Inc. is in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

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The toy airship remains very alive and active on the globe'south scene. Balloons are manufactured by the millions daily in a number of countries. They commencement as liquid from a rubber tree. Balloon manufacturing companies send the liquid through treatment processes and then through shaping and coloring operations. The liquid winds up as a balloon which provides a splash of color and a flare-up of excitement at private parties, fairs, carnivals, circuses, store sales, trade expositions, and at any other place that people gather for relief from work and routine. Silver mylars perform the same function.

The earth is better off because of the toy balloon.

H. Wayne Roberts, Vice President, Account Marketing, Pioneer Airship, writes:

Long earlier there were any companies who did balloon deliveries, long before anyone idea of arches, balloon weddings, balloon decor, etc. Qualatex was a leader in the sale of advertizement balloons. And so, to be very honest the mod balloon environment may not take evolved if it had not been for the olden days. Imprinted business organisation and event balloons were the start and life blood of Pioneer (the real visitor name) and Qualatex (the make proper name) which have a much more interesting history than many of the lists readers may be aware. In the olden days - there was Qualatex, Oak and Tilly - all had divisions in the Specialty Adverting Market.
Pioneer has sold its products through different distribution channels for many years. The main thrust of Pioneer'south early years (since 1918) was the consumer retail and novelty markets. In 1936, Pioneer joined what is now the Promotional Products Association and became involved in selling its custom-printed products through a nationwide network of distributors. It was not until the early 1980's that Pioneer began to develop the professional decorator marketplace. Sales of custom printed balloons through the promotional production manufacture correspond a meaning percent of Pioneer's business, and go on to grow.

Foil Balloons

The concept and technology for the "metalization" of plastic sheeting that has given the states foil balloons comes directly out of the NASA Space Mission. Past the way, all of us sculptors should stop referring to foil balloons every bit Mylar (a trademarked name for a certain type of polyester film) balloons. The airship manufacture refers to them as "foil" balloons, because they are fabricated of nylon sheet, coated on ane side with polyethylene and metallized on the other. It's patently so much harder to make balloons out of aluminized Mylar (and probably then much more expensive) that nobody does information technology. (Mylar is a thermosetting polymer, not a thermoplastic polymer like nylon or polyethylene; thus Mylar non heat-sealable.)

The Art of Balloon Modeling

Printed on Tilly airship packages are the words "Inventor of the Modern Prophylactic Balloon" and "World'southward Most Beautiful Balloons since 1931". On the dorsum information technology says "Tilly Biodegradeable Natural Rubber Balloons, produced from the highest grade Hevea tree latex, are decayed past natural exposure, into soil nutrients as fast as tree leaves. Ane gross of balloons represents the daily tapping of a salubrious rubber tree for viii to 10 weeks during which time it replaced 10 lbs of greenhouse gas with life giving oxygen, gave steady income to a small farmer in a developing state, and provided a happy home for songbirds."

From "Transmission of Airship Modeling, Vol. 1, An Encyclopedic Series" by Val Andrews, 1981, Magico Magazine, NYC:

I have institute the art of airship modeling a joy to lookout since I offset saw information technology washed past Wally Boag in the early on 'fifties. But I sympathize that "Windy Blow" was performing the art in England as early every bit 1945. Both Jay Marshall and Tommy Windsor proper noun i H.J. Bonnert of Scranton, PA, as the "daddy of them all." Information technology seems that Mr. Bonnert performed a modeling act with balloons at a Pittsburgh Magicians' Convention manner back in 1938!.... As far as modeling from one long airship is concerned, Windy Blow claims to have done this in 1945, and he certainly published a one-balloon animal with details in Max Andrew's Magic Mag in February, 1953. At least this proves wrong the generally held view that ane-balloon animals were originated every bit late as 1960, and in the United States.

From "Roger's Safe Ark, One Balloon Zoo, Book ii", by Roger Siegel, 1971, Magic Inc., Chicago, IL:

A toy balloon is a very former plaything ... kids floated them around on strings for over a hundred years. They were ever round until a few decades ago when long balloons appeared. These were presently turned by magicians into huge animals, but when the "pencil balloons" appeared, brute making came into its own."

and on the back cover, a note from the publisher reads:

We are proud of our tape in the publication of books on balloon fauna work. In 1952 we printed a mimeo edition of Don Alan's "Rubber Circus", followed by the first printed edition in 1958. These were the beginning books published on the making of animals from the larger balloons. Then when the pencil balloons came on the market, we published "Ane Balloon Zoo", the get-go book on animals fabricated from these narrower balloons.

From a preface written by John Shirley, appearing in "One balloon animals; the safety jungle / Roger's rubber jungle" by Roger Siegel:

By definition, a balloon is a minor inflatable rubber purse, used equally a toy. It made its get-go appearance at the Paris Exposition of 1889. In the get-go it was simply ii sheets of gum rubber with the edges pounded together, made to look like one of the large hot-air balloons which had been around since 1783. The toy version caught on quickly and has been constantly improved and diversified up to the present twenty-four hour period... The art of twisting and sculpturing balloons probably began quondam around 1920 only did not go popular until the advent of the skinny balloons after World State of war II. These were made first in Japan and imported to the U.Southward. as a very depression-priced novelty. Crude directions showed how to combine several balloons to make dogs, giraffes, hats, airplanes, etc. The quality of the rubber was and then poor that only an adept could manage to sculpt without breaking the balloons. Likewise, the heavy rubber and small diameter made them very difficult to inflate. Even so, millions of them were sold, mostly past post-order, and U.S. balloon companies soon took the hint. They began to package their regular airship balloons as balloon animal kits. Information technology took 3 curt and one long airship to make a airship dog.
In the late 1950'southward, several companies began marketing the skinny-twister balloons which are used by most rubber-sculptors today. The quality was much improved, the colors were bright, and almost anyone could inflate them. All-time of all they were inexpensive when compared to the regular-sized balloon balloons. They made an splendid give-away. Information technology was inevitable that the fine art of balloon sculpturing be revived. The new balloons were more than than twenty times the diameter, in length. This enabled the sculptor to make many twists in one airship. The inventor of the one balloon beast is unknown, merely his origination opened the door to a new art."

Tom Myers writes:

Here's my take on the history on the ane" twisting balloon. I'd gauge information technology was in 1987 that a twister at a clown convention showed me a 1" balloon made in (I retrieve) Mexico. He had bought a pack of 36 somewhere. It was about a 115 size balloon and it made a great little poodle. I don't remember who it was but it seems to me it was a friend of Dancin' Dan Hansen's.
On the same trip I stopped by Ashland Rubber in Ohio and talked to the manager who had never seen a 1" twisting balloon and said he'd piece of work on them. They came out within a year.

My first ad for them named them as 130 Spaghetti Balloons. I wanted to imply they were very skinny.

Pencil and Twisty have been used to depict the 2" balloons since the 1960's.

Jim Church Three writes: If you are interested in some history about balloon animals, but inquire the old- timers.

1Q. Was Ashland Safe Co. the first maker of the pencil balloons? If not, who was?
1A. The first 245 airship I (Ralph Dewey) knew of was made by Oak Rubber and was very thin and transparent. I talked them into making a run (5,000,000) balloons in the early 60's They were very hard to inflate but matched the other airships as far equally colour and weight, That balloon was taken to Ashland by Morris Levy in the early 1960's.
2Q. I read in some of the primeval books that the balloon was used outset to make animals. Who came upwardly with the idea of using a long skinny balloon (the #245 pencil balloon)?
2A. I (Ralph Dewey) started making balloon animals in 1952 using 312, 338, 426, 428 and simply using the 245 balloon for elephant ears and wings for a dragonfly. the reason I had them brand the heavier airship was to make the figures match. Frank Zacone from Youngstown, Ohio was doing a balloon act during the 1940's and had been doing the deed for some fourth dimension. At that time as a teen ager all I could come across were Marshall Flowers and then I never paid any attending to his act. When I started using balloons in 1952 Frank had already passed away.

3Q. Was the #245 the starting time pencil airship size?
3A. Yep as far as I (Ralph Dewey) know.

For those of you who are members of the Society of American Magicians, their magazine MUM volition be having a balloon magic event in Dec 1998. For the magazine, Bruce Kalver just finished a timeline history of balloons.

In Bruce Kalver's book Professional person Portfolio for Balloon Artists, in that location is a department on the history of balloons. Hither's what is says most balloon twisting:

"H.J. Bonnert of Scranton, PA performed a balloon modeling act at a Pittsburgh magic convention 1938. "
Bruce believes that this was the showtime balloon twisting performer.

It is said that Galileo, in an experiment to measure out the weight of air, inflated a squealer'south float-1620's. The beginning 'non-round' balloon (cigar shaped) was manufactured in Ashland, Ohio-1912.

A recent M-U-M (The magazine of The Society of American Magicians) credits Bev Bergeron as the offset person to brand one balloon figures using 260's! Others before him used multiple balloons to create their masterpieces!

Bruce Kalver writes "I am familiar with Bev'due south claim. Although he was ane of the get-go, my enquiry shows others before him."

The Airship Decorating Organizations and Conventions

The National Association of Balloon Artists (NABA) was the brainchild of Debra Paulk. She published "How to Build a Amend Airship Business organization" and started the associated print publication Balloons Today mag in March of 1986. Their first convention was in January of 1987 in Atlanta.
This was the beginning for large balloon conventions, although smaller events had taken place. Jim Parker and the Red Balloon Company had been doing seminars for some fourth dimension. Darlene Dykstra had hosted a couple of open-houses with classes, and Flowers had done a few workshops every bit well. The first "Balloons & Singing Telegram" (B&ST, or "BEST") was held in Edmonton in 1985, every bit an outgrowth of Darlene's workshops. This later became, in retrospect, IBAC 1 (IBAC 4 was the first official International Balloon Arts Convention). Jim Parker was loosely associated, every bit was John McGrath, (of "John-Wayne" productions and Silver Rainbow, inventor of the Quickie Clip, the banana mylar, and the mylar yo-yo). Rocky Toomey, and the rest of the current IBAC crew, were there. Also there was Jerry Levin, with brother Philw ho started Balloon City but later sold out. I think it was Darlene who likewise sponsored the "Alcohol Cruise", a balloon seminar/workshop on a Carribean Cruise. The side by side two B&ST conventions were in Chicago. John McGrath was the organizer, with some sponsorship from Pioneer. It coincided with the Party Show at Rosemont, like IBAC does now, merely and then it was Labor Twenty-four hours weekend-ish.

There was an attempted startup of B&ST as an arrangement, like the newly formed NABA. An accociated newsletter fabricated information technology to prototype phase, which I saw a copy of once, but it never flew. There was somewhat of a rivalry betwixt NABA and B&ST. The B&STconvention itself was in danger of folding, and Don Cheeseman, Marie Mandoli, Rocky Toomey, Jamie Jeffries, and Chuck and Joyce Gruberman, were involved, got backing form Pioneer, and made it fly.

IBAC 4 was held in Denver in 1989. It was the first real IBAC, with total Pioneer sponsorship (I should point out that Pioneer came to the rescue of this fledgling organization and helped it succeed when it almost didn't.
When B&ST left Chicago and became IBAC, it stopped being affiliated with a trade show and instead became affiliated with a unmarried sponsor, Pioneer. NABA, on the other mitt had grown from a few sponsors, or affiliates, to a major full blown trade show. The buzz was, go to IBAC if you want to learn hard-core balloon art, go to NABA for the merchandise testify. The publication Balloons Today changed its name to Balloons and Parties Today.
The International Balloon Clan (IBA) was formed in 1989 by U.South. Balloon Distributors to gainsay negative legislative proposals to ban the sale of balloons in California and other states. At the time, California had experienced some costly ability outages due to errant metallic balloon releases, and to solve this problem, the proposal had been made to ban balloons altogether. Manufacturers soon joined Distributors and subsequently The Balloon Council was formed and commissioned to fight the legal battles on behalf of the balloon industry. The goals and ethics of the IBA as information technology was formed then are however true today, to promote the airship manufacture and the perceived value of balloons to the cease user and to dispell negative information well-nigh balloons to the public. In 1991-92 IBA included balloon Retailers and Decorators in its membership and consequently held two Trade Show/Educational Conventions for the benefit of all members. After 1992 this membership category was discontinued every bit IBAC was emerging and fulfilling the educational needs of the Retail/Decorator/Twister/Entertainer category. IBA continued every bit a Distributor-driven association with an Annual Business Conference held each year in the autumn.
At the 2005 Annual Business Meeting, IBA members unanimously voted to bring back the Retail/Decor/Twister/Entertainer Category of Membership and subsequently voted to agree an IBA Balloon & Party Convention in conjunction with TransWorld Exhibits International Halloween and Political party Show the post-obit March of 2006 in Rosemont, IL. Following the success of this convention, information technology was determined that IBA and TransWorld Exhibits would keep to partner to produce this event every year. IBA Annual Business meetings continue to be held in August or September each year with the agenda of promoting good for you business practices for all member categories and to conduct the business concern of the Clan.
Jim Parker of The Red Balloon Company had been involved for a long time in education and networking. He launched the Red Balloon Network, which was supposed to be an organization with ante, qualifications and portfolios mandatory. They would produce promotional brochures and postcards for members to purchase and utilize in marketing. Ane member per 'territory', so the first member in an area excluded whatsoever other members from that area. Yous would refer to other RBN members around the country. The network grew slowly and struggled. In what may have been 'posturing' for a takeover bid, the RBN at ane point extended an invitation to known balloon artists to bring together without having to authorize past submitting their portfolios. Ante would exist waived for an initial year or so. This resulted in a rapid growth of membership, simply not much of a ascension capital, I'd imagine. Very shortly thereafter, the RBN was bought by Pioneer and restructured into the Qualatex Airship Network (QBN). RBN members were sort-of "grandfathered" in as lease members, simply yet had to take the tests.

The Showtime Convention dedicated to the field of study of Airship Modeling

T&JAM 1999 - The convention dedicated to airship twisters.
Organized past T. Myers Maginc, Inc. and Airship HQ, LLC
Dateline: Austin, TX.

The T & Jam Competition was held today at the Austin Chariot Resort Inn. Words cannot draw the balloons that were entered in the competition today at T & Jam! In that location were no official "judges." Instead, everyone who entered a sculpture got to pick the sculpture they thought was the best in each of iii categories. When the votes were tallied Tom Myers read off the results and presented the awards: Balloon Magic books and videos, BSA gift certificates, iii boom boxes, Qualatex jackets, and T.Myers plaques.
Minor sculpture category
1st place: Patrick Chocolate-brown; Clown Car
2nd place: Yvonne Brogdon; Babysitting Chicken in a Basket
3rd place: Ken Stillman; King Neptune

Medium sculpture category
1st place: Jeanette Lively; Dragon
2d identify: Patrick Brown; Clown on a Unicycle
third place: Fred Harshberger; Bull Rider

Large sculpture category
1st place: Patrick Dark-brown; Male monarch of the Gargoyles
2nd identify: Ken Stillman; Pirate
third place: Marker Verge; Goofy Fishing

Meet photos of these winning sculptures!

1999 T & Jam Top Twister The "Top Twister" award was given to the person who received the highest cumulative number of votes in all 3 categories. This fabulous prize package consisted of $1,000.00 worth of merchandise from the T.Myers catalog, along with a television prepare and the full Qualatex Balloon Network CBA video grade. The 1999 T & Jam Top Twister accolade went to Patrick Dark-brown.

Patty Sorell writes:

I'd like to beginning past thanking Tom for taking the responsibility along with Larry, Mark and Sheena to get a Airship Sculptors Gathering possible. Although we (on the internet) take been dreaming and talking virtually information technology for a long fourth dimension, it took $ and time to make it a reality, something that T & BHQ had more than of than united states other folks. Thanks. Now for the review/synopsis:
Royal and I arrived on Thursday and got our room fundamental, we had just run into Dennis K also from Mass at the airport and when we walked in the front door of the hotel, there was Sheena! We didn't demand no amethyst balloons. We fabricated a date to meet poolside after we threw our apparel into the room, so we could conversation and jam. When nosotros got poolside there were already several balloon lovers chating and instantly we started introductions and jammin'. As the mean solar day wore on, others saw the growing oversupply and automatically jumped correct in. John Holmes arrived, Marvin arrived, T and the crew started bringing in boxes for the sattellite location of TMyers Magic and BHQ as well ready a figurer to evidence everyone the new BHQ look and to introduce some to the world of balloons online. Balloons were flying everywhere and lots of people were getting to know each other and exclaiming "and so thats what you look like!" We twisted till information technology was too nighttime to run across, so we ended upwardly twisting some more in the eating place and the bar.

Friday was much the same, more people coming into the hotel, twisting wherever there was an empty space, going to Dennys to twist (and maybe to swallow), and getting to know one another. Nosotros met for the welcome and general info session - introductions of staff, how the weekend would exist run and other details. The open mike was fun just it seemed that some people may accept been intimidated by the names, because I would have idea we would have more than participants. When next twelvemonth comes and we have open mike (I advise T, that this be a "keeper"), simply become upwardly there and think of us a friends and don't be afraid. When that was done estimate what we all did.... we were jamming some more.

Sat started the classes and I must say it was the best set-upward I have ever witnessed/attended. The clowns and magicians could accept a lesson hither. The sessions were scheduled so that each attendee had the hazard to see all the teachers/classes if they wanted. Admission to each grade was $5. If you didn't desire to take a class, no trouble. If you did, $5 is a nominal fee. Imperial and I had a friend at the door collecting for us. Co-ordinate to the figures it is true that not everyone took the classes, some elected to just jam (or sleep tardily) somewhere on the hotel grounds. I have to say that usually at Clown or Magic conventions, there is picayune in the style of fee or compensation to a teacher other than a free registration, but at T amp;Jam, Royal and I at to the lowest degree made up some of what we were losing by turning downwards jobs for the weekend. The saturday competition was awe inspiring. I had been working on my pieces all weekend (Nurse in modest category, Bride & Groom in meduim, Jack in the Box in large), Royal decided to enter (Superguy in small, 4' tall Goofy in medium, Charlie Chaplin near a Lamppost with Keystone cop and dog in Large). We were soundly beaten by the winners (though my nurse lost to Ken Stillman's neptune by but 1 signal) and humbled by the other entrants' talent.

The banquet was just too much fun, we had balloons on all the tables and the contest was to see which table could make the all-time (voted by adulation) group sculpture. Balloons were flying everywhere and yous couldn't meet the other side of the room for all the balloons. United states instructors were at a caput table on stage and therefore unable to take role and then we had our ain game going - target practice: we would shoot balloons off our fingers at called targets, nosotros missed 99% of the time. More twisting in the restaurant and bar after.

Sunday was new to all of us. The only scheduled event was John Holmes sunday service with Ralph Dewey's help. Subsequently T had set up up a time for what he chosen private lessons. It was supposed to exist a set cost for the students to divide, but that seemed to intimidate people and kept them from signing upwards - they didn't want to exist stuck for a $350 tab if they were the only ane there. And then well-nigh instructors opted for a gear up price. The very cool thing about the private lessons were that anyone could teach and attempt to recruit students. There must have been 15 or more unlike lessons going on, weaving, balloon entertainment, cartoon characters, gospel balloons and much more than. Prices ranged from $x - $25 for a lesson, some lessons were limited to 2 hours, some had no limit. Regal and I decided to teach people and figure studies and airship caricatures and we charged $25, we were going to teach until we were done. We ended up teaching for 4 hours ( = $6.25 per hour, not a bad bargain!). We had a total of 12 students in our room and because the form was and then small-scale there was real hands on and everyone learned tons of stuff. Because of popular demand, we also ended up doing a 2nd class in the afternoon (aforementioned equally the first) for another 5 students. Lots of people were leaving on sun afternoon, but they were still able to cram in some private lesson or jamming time, but a agglomeration of us staying till monday went out to a local steakhouse for ane last nite of fun. There was still more jamming, simply Royal and I were at the finish of the table that wasn't (were were simply nigh ballooned out). We got to know Steph and Yves from belgium and what they did for an act and nosotros, forth with Larry and Sheena, compared notes on entertaining styles.

That was information technology for u.s., we went home on Monday morning and we are totally exhausted. But it was besides totally worth it. Thank you again Tom and everyone else who made T &Jam a huge success. Run into you lot next yr!

Balloon Modeling comes to IBAC

IBAC 11 this past August was a smash. I got to meet and hang out with lots of balloon artists and substitution ideas, tips and sculptures. For me it was basically a iv day version of Marvin's "260Q Jam Session" class where airship artists show each other what they've got. The after-hours networking and twisting in the hall was basic/ intermediate/ advanced/ ultra-avant-garde with lots of one-on-1 sharing and jamming.

MB 1996
SKB 3/9/00
SKB xi/1/02
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