Toy balloon in "Swiss Family Robinson" (1813) and in "Moby Dick" (1851). The first rubber balloons were made by Professor Michael Faraday in 1824 for use in his experiments with hydrogen at the Royal Institution in London. "The caoutchouc is exceedingly elastic", he wrote in the Quarterly Journal of Science the same year. "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..." Faraday made his balloons by cutting round two sheets of rubber laid together and
Balloon rocket Balloon rocket A balloon rocket is a rubber balloon filled with air or other gases. Besides being simple toys, balloon rockets are a widely used as a teaching device to demonstrate basic physics. To launch a simple rocket, the untied opening of an inflated balloon is released. The elasticity of the balloon contracts the air out through the opening with sufficient force and the resulting pressure creates a thrust which propels the balloon forward as it deflates. It is usual for the balloon to be propelled somewhat uncontrollably (or fly in and unstable centre of mass), as well as turbulence