Frigid gusts whipped across the square, making those crossing it step lively with shrugged shoulders. In its middle huddled a cluster of shoppers, winter tourists and curious, keeping warm under the cap of a ten foot, stainless steel mushroom. Now and then, with a rainbow sparkle reflecting the feeble winter sun, a spore-like bubble broke free of the cap’s edge rising quickly as it was swept away over the rooftops.
Other bubbles clustered like multihued frog eggs above the assembled pedestrians who watched them wide-eyed with some apprehension and listened to the slight tapping as new frozen spheres made their way up the metal stem. At its base, hydrogen seeped through a wet, soapy mouthpiece at the bottom of a foggy dry ice tank creating more lighter-than-air hail.
At random intervals glow plugs at different places on the inner roof switched on, melting and igniting the nearest bubbles with a “wump…wump, wump”. Each flash lit up, warmed and sprayed those nearby with a balmy mist smelling of lilac.-- FarmerJohn, Nov 29 2004 (?) Make Helium Bubbles http://littleshop.p...bles/HeBubbles.html [FarmerJohn, Nov 29 2004] Make Frozen Bubbles http://chemistry.ab...wtos/a/aa012004.htm [FarmerJohn, Nov 29 2004] Imaginative.+ Those Helium bubbles certainly move up with some speed! Any chance of frozen CO2 bubbles cascading along the path?-- Ling, Nov 29 2004 Cool. Can the mushrooms also make periodic hiccuping noises?-- moomintroll, Nov 29 2004 Sure guys, we follow the KITSCH rule: Keep It Transcendental Spouting CO2 Hiccoughs.-- FarmerJohn, Nov 29 2004 + If the Hydrogen bubbles floated up from the base of a Van de Graff generator do you think that they would be attracted close enough to the sphere for the static sparks to ignite them before the bubbles were repelled?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 30 2004 We had a chemistry demonstration once in school where the teacher lit a standard balloon (from a 20 foot pole, mind you) filled with hydrogen.
The ensuing explosion shook the dust from the rafters of the gym and measured quite loudly on the decibel scale.
I think helium would be a wiser choice.-- RayfordSteele, Dec 01 2004 Helium is a non-renewable resource. Best not to use it in anything too useless.-- ye_river_xiv, Mar 19 2008 random, halfbakery