Shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, bubbles are a joy to children young and old. For inventor Tim Kehoe, however, creating a bubble with a single color that won't stain when it pops has been a 15-year, $3-million obsession. Two weeks ago, the world's first colored, non-staining bubbles, Zubbles, went on sale.
A lot of people "said that you just can't color a bubble," said Kehoe, "which is discouraging when that is exactly what you are trying to do."
The use of bubbles for entertainment purposes was first recorded about 400 years ago. Today, bubbles are arguably the world's most popular toy, with more than 200 million bottles of bubble solution sold annually.
The simple chemistry of bubbles -- two layers of soap sandwiching a layer of water about a millionth of an inch thick -- has foiled virtually every attempt to modify them. Bubbles that last a little longer or can be blown a little bigger have since been created, but adding color, what some toy manufactures have called the "holy grail" of toys, has remained frustratingly elusive.
Standard food coloring or dyes have no effect; they simply run down the sides of the bubble, creating a drop of color on the bottom. Other dyes can stain bubbles, but when they pop they also stain clothes, dogs and eyes, as Kehoe discovered during one accident. Other tests, including one for a bubble dye that washed out, didn't fare much better.
"I thought a washable bubble was a great idea," said Kehoe. "But the kids (of a large focus group) were covered head to toe in red dye. It looked like a scene from Braveheart."
From : Discovey Channel
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