The American Boy's Handy Book/Chapter 14
"A soap-bubble" is an uncouth, inelegant name for such an ethereal, fairy sphere. It is such a common, every-day sight to us that we seldom give it much attention or realize how wonderful and beautiful is this fragile, transparent, liquid globe. Its spherical form is typical of perfection, and the ever-changing, prismatic colors of its iridiscent surface charm the eye.
It is like a beautiful dream; we are entranced while it lasts, but in an instant it vanishes and leaves nothing to mark its former existence except the memory of its loveliness.
Few persons can stand by and watch another blowing bubbles without being seized with an uncontrollable desire to blow one for themselves. There is a peculiar charm or pleasure in the very act which not many who have known it ever outgrow. At the present time "soap-bubble parties" are becoming quite fashionable. At one of these gatherings the guests, old and young, furnished with clay pipes, stand around a table, in the centre of which is placed a fancy punch bowl filled—not with a mixture of ardent spirits, but soapsuds. Prizes are awarded to those among the guests who successfully launch in air the largest bubble, and to those who keep theirs flying for the greatest length of time or send them the highest. As may be imagined, these parties are very amusing, and everybody at first tries to prevent his or her neighbor from succeeding, until, amid great merriment and confusion, the hostess announces that if her guests expect the prizes to be awarded, a rule must be enacted compelling them to pay more attention to their own efforts and not allowing them to molest each other.
It is generally known that a bubble will burst if it touch any hard or smooth surface, but upon the carpet or a woollen cloth it will roll or bounce merrily.
If you take advantage of this fact you can with a woollen cloth make bubbles dance and fly around as lively as a juggler's gilt balls, and you will be astonished to find what apparently rough handling these fragile bubbles will stand when you are careful not to allow them to touch anything but the woollen cloth.
It may be worth remarking that the coarser the soap the brighter the bubbles will be. The compound known as "soft soap" is by some persons considered the best for the purpose.
In the accompanying illustrations are shown two kinds of soap-bubbles.
One of the pictures shows how to transform your bubble into an aërial vapor balloon.
If you wish to try this pretty experiment, procure a rubber tube, say a yard long, and with an aperture small enough to require considerable stretching to force it over the gas-burner. After you have stretched one end so as to fit tightly over the burner, wrap the stem of a clay pipe with wet paper and push it into the other end of the tube, where it must fit so as to allow no gas to escape. Dip the bowl of your pipe into the suds Image missingGas-bubble. and turn the gas on; the force of the gas will be sufficient to blow the bubble for you, and, as the gas is lighter than the air, the bubble, when freed from the pipe, will rapidly ascend and never stop in its upward course until it perishes.
Old Uncle Cassius, an aged negro down in Kentucky, used to amuse the children by making smoke-bubbles.
Did you ever see smoke-bubbles? In one the white-blue smoke, in beautiful curves, will curl and circle under its crystal shell. Another will possess a lovely opalescent, pearly appearance, and if one be thrown from the pipe while quite small and densely filled with smoke, it will appear like an opaque polished ball of milky whiteness. It is always a great frolic for the children when they catch Uncle Cassius smoking his corn-cob pipe. They gather around his knee with their bowl of soapsuds and bubble pipes, and while the good-natured old man takes a few lusty whiffs from his corn-cob and fills his capacious mouth with tobacco smoke, one of the children dips a pipe into the suds, starts the bubble and passes it to Uncle Cassius. All then stoop down and watch the gradual growth of that wonderful smoke-bubble; and when "Dandy," the dog, chases and catches one of these bubbles, how the children laugh to see the astonished and injured look upon his face, and what fun it is to see him sneeze and rub his nose with his paw!
The figure at the head of this chapter shows you how to make a giant bubble. It is done by first covering your hands well with soapsuds, then placing them together so as to form a cup, leaving a small opening at the bottom. All that is then necessary is to hold your mouth about a foot from your hands and blow into them. I have made bubbles in this way twice the size of my head. These bubbles are so large that they invariably burst upon striking the floor, being unable to withstand the concussion.
Although generally considered a trivial amusement, only fit for young children, blowing soap-bubbles has been an occupation appreciated and indulged in by great philosophers and men of science, and wonderful discoveries in optics and natural philosophy might be made with only a clay-pipe and a bowl of soapsuds.