the.com/balloon
a thin skin between you and a tiny, festive explosion
means a flexible bag, usually rubber or another light material, inflated with air or gas to float, decorate, or amuse.
from From the Italian 'ballone,' meaning 'large ball,' a beefed-up version of 'balla' (ball), tracing back to a Germanic root for a round, swelling thing — a cousin of our own 'ball.' The word arrived in English in the 16th century, long before rubber party balloons existed; early 'balloons' were inflated game-balls and decorative spheres. It later swelled, fittingly, to name the great hot-air craft of the 1780s.
- first flight
- 1783 Montgolfier balloon carried a sheep, duck, and rooster
- helium escapes
- atoms tiny enough to leak straight through latex
- red dread
- natural rubber pops fastest under sun and heat
- altitude record
- weather balloons climb past 30 kilometers high
- static cling
- rubbing one steals electrons, sticking it to walls
hindenburg disaster — german passenger airship that caught fire in lakehurst, new jersey in 1937, killing 35 people
steve fossett balloon — adventurer completed first nonstop solo balloon flight around the world in 2002
chinese spy balloon 2023 — chinese surveillance balloon that drifted across north america and was shot down off south carolina in february 2023