Balloons
Balloons. This words definitely covers a lot of fields. From the helium filled balloons that made our childhood brighter to the hot air balloons with their impressive history and finally to weather balloons which with their unearthly look gave birth to the infamous Roswell myth.
The most common balloons are obviously those used in entertainment. They are simply a sphere made of latex, brightly colored, which tend to get the attention of the right crowd and by this I mean the children. Their manufacturing cost has dropped continuously over the last years and has traditionally become the faithful companions of any successful underage party.
It seems like there is an industry developed around balloons, but this is really not the case. Most of the time companies will produce these items only as a byproduct of their main commercial activity. When it comes to decorating balloons though the situation is radically different. Custom balloon printing is indeed an industry on its own. Typically these companies will sell large amounts of them to other companies which are in a search of a brighter, colorful image. Most of the time they only manage to look stupid, but trial is the mother of all successes.
Hot air balloons are a very different breed though, these are typically produced for overgrown budget, I’m joking of course. Hot air balloons are one of the few means to truly experience the wide open spaces. Their use today is confined for entertainment, but their use only a century ago was far from innocent. Before the planes and the cruise missiles, hot air balloons were used as a high tech alternative to gain air supremacy.
Weather balloons are used in peaceful purposes to explore and understand the upper atmosphere. The materials used in these balloons are enough to make a NASA scientist blush with envy. They represent the very edge of technology and for quite some time they have helped extend the knowledge about this earth we are living on. But this is not all, soon Mars may see these balloons gathering weather information.
Despite appearances balloons do represent a fascinating universe. By understanding their history and their use to date, we will perhaps understand ourselves. Altogether the shift of their use from military to entertainment represents a small representation of our own history.
