Bubblestuff, or more properly, Bubble stuff or I'm forever blowing bubbles...
by James K. Sayre
Bubbles have existed for billions of years. Who knows, maybe they have even evolved a little through time. Anyway, with the discovery and production of soap for washing, children have long enjoyed the short-lived magic of bubbles. Sometime early in the twentieth century I suppose, manufacturers of children's toys discovered that they could make and market small jars of bubblestuff along with a wire or plastic loop to make bubbles with.
These days bubblestuff can be easily and quickly made at home with the basic formula of: 1 part liquid dish detergent to 3 parts water. Some knowledgeable souls also suggest adding small amounts of corn syrup or glycerine to enhance bubble size and stability. If you don't have corn syrup (which is merely a cheap form of sugar), you can boil down some regular sugar dissolved in water as a substitute.
The real trick for at-home bubble blowing is to find a functional form or tool to hold the bubblestuff liquid. Circular forms seem to work better; I suppose that this is because bubbles are spherical and not cubical in shape, so a circle is essentially moving on the right road towards a sphere. Some suggest making a bubble-form out of pipecleaners. I discovered that the finger holes on a pair of scissors work just fine and also gives you a bonus of being able to sometimes make compound bubbles (double-bubbles, triple-bubbles and so on). Examination of the inner surfaces of these multiple bubbles can give you insight into close-packed spherical packing of atoms, which is carefully studied in the field of metallurgical engineering.
Anyway, cheers and good bubble-blowing. Also, there are many good Internet web sites which discuss bubblestuff, bubble-making and the physics of bubbles in more detail.
Check out a short essay on air bubbles in liquid shampoo: shampoo bubbles
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Web page last updated on 30 January 2005.