The Arizona sentinel., 1885-12-19
THE TOY BALLOON.
Trade Secrets Revealed By an Italian E,
 pert-Filling of the Bags.

Trade Secrets Revealed By an Italian Ex-
 pert-FiIling of the Bags.
 The balloon-peddlerS buy the little rubber bags, or ''bladders," sometimes importing them themselves and some times buying them through New York importers. When received here they are stuck together in a lump, but inn mersion in warm water and little rub ping up loosens them, and they are easily pulled apart. When the balloon man comtemplates going out for day he fills as many balloons as he thinks he can sell. He generally does the work of filling in the morning before going out. Generally the balloon-peddler car ries but one kind of balloon with him, which is either the gas balloon, fastened to the end of a thread, or the air bal loon on the end of a toy whip. The latter is the kind generally sold at coun- try fairs, where men and maidens, chil- dren and old women alike buy and carry about the ''airy nothings."
 These are simply inflated gum-blad- ders, painted and gelatined, filled with nothing more than atmospheric air. . The bright-colored and glistening | punches of balloons, with which indus ! trIous Italians excite the desires of the , children along Eighth street, are gener- ally those fastened to threads, and are inflated so as to rise to the ends of the string. They are the most expensive and troublesome kind that the balloon men have to make The ordinary ''stick balloon" requires nothing more for imitation than mere blow-pipe of any kind, a small hand-bellows being generally used for the purpose. For the imitation of the string" balloons the first thing the manufacturer must pur- chase is -gas-machine, in which he manufactures the light gas with which he blows up the filmy bags. These ma chimes are of foreign manufacture, and can only be purchased through some | importing firm in New York. The gas is made by mixing certain proportions of muratic acid and zinc with some other ingredient, the nature of which the makers refuse to divulge, in the large generating tank of the machine. From the large tank a rubber pipe connection carries the generated gas into the small filling tank, which stands upright. From the top of this smaller tank a piece of pipe of small caliber extends : four or five inches. There is key in the pipe like an ordinary gas key.
 ! When the peddler knows the day will i be fair he knows also that the balloon market will be a rising one, and he makes a supply of gas sufficient to in- fate from one hundred to one hundred and fifty balloons. He sits down at his initiating machine with pile of rubber bladders on one side of him and his spool of white thread on the other. One by one he takes up the little rubber bags, inserts the small pipe into the neck of the bag, turns the key, and out swells the balloon to the proper size. A quick turn, and the neck of the balloon is twisted tight enough to prevent the es- cape of the gas. A few turns of thread, knot, and the balloon is strong. Then they must be ornamented with little daubs of paint, which represent flags, eagles, faces, birds and animals. To protect them from the influences of the weather and also to give them their bright, glistening appearance, which is much more pleasing to'the infantile eye than the dull color of the undressed rub Der, q thin film of very fine gelatine is spread oyer them with brush, They