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Helium is a tiny little molecule that tends to escape through the walls of balloons, causing them to become non-boyant and sad. Normal rubber balloons usually die overnight, while the more expensive "mylar" balloons (which aren't really mylar at all, but usually a nylon/polyethylene double-layer film) gradually lose their helium over the space of a couple of weeks, become shrunken and ill before finally sinking to the ground, dead.
But the life of your favorite balloon can be extended indefinately by the sacrifice of its less-loved brother and sister balloons, if you preform Helium Transfusions!
But the life of your favorite balloon can be extended indefinately by the sacrifice of its less-loved brother and sister balloons, if you preform Helium Transfusions!
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You will need the balloon you want to preserve, a sacrificial balloon to provide helium, and a long hollow tube of some kind that is small enough in diameter to be shoved up the valve stems of the balloons. I think the tube show here is from a kid's pinwheel. I've also used a piece of insulation from a cat5 cable, an SMT IC tube, and a fiberglass kite spar. A soda straw tends to be a little too short, and a little too fat, but you might get one to work.
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I did hear, by the way, that two consecutive lungfuls of helium will render you unconcious. The helium prevents the oxygen from getting in, of course. It can be so dangerous, that you can die.
So, while I'll probably do it my self next time I'm around a helium balloon but not my kids, don't inhale helium.
- I provided the link for a reason. It is a medical fact that two lungfuls of helium, from a balloon or a tank, taken without a breath in between, will make you pass out.
I'm sorry; you provided a link that was a search query. I looked at several of the links and didn't see one that supports that particular claim, and several that said things like "unconciousness occurs after a couple of minutes" and "death is relatively certain after 10 minutes" (suicide sites; creepy...) Do you have a more specific link?I didn't mean for this to degrade into a debate about the dangers, or lack there of, of helium.
I did find a link that indicates:
...while it is true that helium itself is nonthreatening, inhaling it has been known to cause asphyxia...
And
Henry Wickes Jr., a consultant with Madeley Safety Engineers in Texas, wrote... "Depending on how completely oxygen is replaced by helium, you may lose consciousness quickly and without warning,”
The two lungful stat the I gave out was from a demonstration given by a cryogenics expert from Praxair, so I can't give you a link specific to that.
In my search for more specific links I came across one that said that the desire to breath comes from a build up of carbon dioxyide in your lungs, and since inhaling helium doesn't allow for this, you can die from aphyxiation without feeling staved for air like. But, I lost the link while searching, and can't provide it here.
The confrontational nature of my previous posts was not intended, and I apologize for coming across as such.
Another Balloon site (the first I could find with actual prices listed) will rent you an 80ft3 tank of helium for a week (ie you can use up all the helium) for $35. And this USGS report lists the commodity price of helium as about $11000/ton. While that's expensive compared to (say) nitrogen, it's still cheap enough to be used extensively in welding, where it's simply allowed to float way after keeping the O2 off your weld.
Saved you the trouble. ; )
I used several different computers, so you milage may vary with this.
It's been done. :P