kite festival photos, bubble machine

One of my friends stated that events like the Smithsonian Kite Festival are great because it makes DC feel like a small town. The festival atmosphere did bring that friendly small town feeling to DC, except that many of the people I talked to was visiting from elsewhere in the country or the world—one of the things I really like about events in DC.

I had some lively chats with some kitemakers who were in the competition, visitors who were taking their own purchased kites out for a sail, and most interesting of all, the bubble guy. Felix Cartagena is his real name, but most everyone there called him the bubble guy. Felix brought a bubble making machine that he designed and built and set it up at the kite festival. It served as (1) an anchor location that people could easily recognize (meet me by the bubble machine), (2) entertainment for the kids of all ages, and (3) a wind direction indicator for the kite fliers. And I'm not making this up!

Apparently, Felix was a kitemaker himself when he first started participating in kite festivals. One year, he looked to do something different and realized that maybe bubbles was the direction, literally, to try. Kite pilots wanted to know what direction surface-level light winds were blowing in, something that a windsock isn't particularly good at, and that's when Felix came up with the bubble machine idea. It was designed both to be a functional wind indicator as well as a form of art and entertainment to be enjoyed by the crowds. Below are some photos of the bubble machine in action on the grounds of the Washington Monument.


Bubbles and Flags in Wind


Bubbles Under the Washington Monument


Bubble Rings
It appears that the rings are really from conventional bubble wands, but reconstructed into a rotating disc. If you notice closely, wire is suspending one ring between two others.


Wall of Parents, with Kids on Shoulders (as Felix described it)

The last two photos are a rear view and the side view of the machine. Two small motors rotate a yellow disc of rings. The lower half of the disc of rings is submerged in a bucket of soapy solution, and the upper half of the disc is exposed to two small fans behind it, which blow the bubbles. The fans and motors were powered by two battery packs, and the entire device was mounted on a hand truck (cart) with wheels. To keep kids back from touching the machine, a hula hoop was mounted on the cart (not shown in photos) to provide a non-threatening, but definitive line for kids to stay behind.


Bubble Machine, Side View


Bubble Machine, Rear View

Through my conversation with Felix, I could tell a lot of thought went into this seemingly simple bubble machine—I think that is what makes it so cool. I asked about the rotational speed of the motors and how that was determined. His answer was in essence, the scientific method. Through hypothesis and experimentation, Felix found the optimum rotational speed of the motor, about 6 rpm, to not only produce the bubbles effectively, but produce the particular size and type of bubbles that he was looking for.

From an engineering standpoint, there are quite a few decision (independent) variables to consider in the design: the rotational speed of the motors, the fans' output wind speed and shape profile, the composition (soap to water ratio) of the soapy solution, the geometry and positioning of the bubble rings, the position of the soapy solution buckets, the overall height of the machine, and power and safety considerations. Of course, external variables factored into the design as well, like ambient environmental conditions: would the bubble machine work well in windy, calm, hot, cold, humid, dry, and other conditions?

All the engineering decision variables produced output variables: the size, shape, quantity, and motion of the bubbles. This is where the artistic standpoint came into play. Felix had a philosophy that the bubbles themselves, not the machine, was the art. The decision variables were optimized not purely for function, but for aesthetics as well.

One clear indicator of artistic and engineering success is the impact that it makes on people. Here's this machine sitting in the middle of a field, where it's one of the first things that catch peoples' attention (where are all these bubbles coming from?!) and when they find it, they stay there to enjoy it (see wall of parents, with kids, above). The kids are chasing after bubbles, the parents are happy that their kids have something to do, and most everyone is amused by the novelty of the machine. Meanwhile the photographers are having a field day with all of the above: kids, parents, the machine, and bubbles, all potential subjects in the frame :)

Wind direction indicator, child entertainment device, location marker, bubble art, call it what you will, but I think Felix created something that not only embodied the principles of art, science, and engineering, but the spirit of the kite festival itself.