Today ’s balloon beast — those mainstays of carnivals and country fairs — all start as flat , 60 - inch - farseeing " dirt ball . " Air gives the insect structure , and plait give it attribute and shape . Balloon “ twister ” can transform a dim-witted worm into almost any brute . So it ’s meet that the first balloons were made from existent animate being intestines , which provided a good — albeit smelly — medium for handling into shapes . These balloons come out as far back as the Aztecs , who cleaned out cat gut , venter , and bladder , let them dry out , and sew together them with a vegetable thread that created an airtight seal ; they would twist these creations ( vaunt to inflate after each twist ) into balloon animals and coiffure them on fire as offerings to the Supreme Being .
Intestines were relegated to sausage casings with the design of the India rubber balloon by Michael Faraday in 1824 . The undermentioned year , Thomas Hancock mass - market synthetic rubber balloon in the manikin of a kit , which contained liquid safe and a syringe , which customers used to make the balloon . Neil Tillotson invented the modern latex balloon in 1931 . But the flesh of these former balloons were more conducive to water balloon fights and natal day surprisal than the longsighted and slender shape necessary for the formation of the ears and legs of balloon animals .
Skinny balloon were first manufactured in Japan after World War II . The long and slight balloon were packaged with directions to fall in several balloons into different animals . The current personification of skinny balloon were first manufactured in the fifties . These new bright , long , cheap balloons allow citizenry to put multiple wind in a single balloon , provide more intricate brute that integrate more balloons . Balloon animals could now evolve from simple animals to complex creatures .
The techniques of balloon twisting have not changed much since the invention of the skinny balloon , but whether it is a simple puppy or a replica of aT. rex , balloon animals continue to put smiles on the faces of young and old .
Monica Granados is mother her Ph.D. in Biology at McGill University .
