- Are glow sticks safe?
- How do glow sticks and light sticks work?
- How long do glow sticks last for?
- Can you break a glow stick?
- Who invented glow sticks?
- Home made bubble recipe
- What are the ingredients of glow sticks?
- The history of Poi
- Who invented the Frisbee?
- When were glow sticks first used with music?
- How to make a glow stick
- Festival Check List
- How do kites fly?
- How do Gliders fly?
- How do Gyroscopes work?
- How do helicopters fly?
Yes, most glow sticks, also know as light sticks, come in a thick sealed plastic tube. If the outer casing of the glostick is somehow punctured or broken open, the chemical contents are non-toxic and non-flammable. Contact with the eyes or ingesting of the fluid should be avoided as irritation may result. There is also the possibility of an allergic reaction. If spilled onto clothing or furniture the glostick contents may stain so wash immediately. Please keep in mind however that if used safely you will never come into contact with the fluid inside the glowstick and any leaking glow sticks should be discarded. Gogogloglo products are not recommended for children under the age of 3 without adult supervision and recommend discarding any faulty glow sticks.
Please be warned. There is a glow stick price war on the internet and this can also be seen in some high street shops such as pound shops. There is a very real danger of eye damage if these cheap glow sticks are purchased as they can easily split and the contents are not always CE tested. The glass in the glow sticks is also a danger for obvious reasons. If you buy cheap glowsticks from they may not of high quality. There are some reputable companies but you usually get what you pay for.
Gogogloglo only use three brands of glowsticks, Omniglow, Popglo and Illumiglow safety light sticks, all CE tested products and safe to use.
How do glow sticks and light sticks work?
Glow sticks, also know as light sticks, work using a safe chemical reaction. There are four components to glowsticks. The first is the thick plastic outer tube, the second is the fluid you can see moving around inside the glostick, the third is the glass ampule which floats freely in the fluid and the fourth is the fluid contained inside the glass ampule. Depending on which fluids are used, the chemical reaction may go on for a few minutes or for many hours. If you warm up the glowstick, the extra energy will accelerate the reaction, and the glow stick will glow brighter, but for a shorter amount of time. If you cool the light stick, the reaction will slow down, and the light will dim. If you want to preserve your light stick for the next day, put it in the freezer, it won't stop the process, but it will drag out the reaction considerably. To buy glow sticks please click on this link: http://www.gogogloglo.com/glosticks To buy safety glow sticks please click on this link:
When you bend the glow stick, the glass ampule contained in the glowstick snaps open, and the two fluids flow together. The chemicals immediately react with one another, and the atoms begin emitting light. The particular dye used in the chemical solution gives the light a distinctive color. Glosticks come in a variety of colours including white.
How long do glow sticks last for?
Glow sticks will keep for up to two years if stored in the original packaging in dry, cool conditions and safety glow sticks will last up to 4 years. When the glowsticks are activated they will glow for 8 hours or more. Ambient temperatures can effect the intensity and glowing time of glow sticks, hot weather will produce a brighter glow for slightly less time, cool weather will produce a slightly dimmer glow for longer time.
Good quality glow sticks are extremely hard to break without using a tool. They have a thick plastic wall which has to contain the liquid and stand up to the breaking of the glass ampule inside to activate the glow stick reaction. However, there have been cheaply manufactured glosticks that can sometimes split, these are typically not tested for the European market which requires a CE test.
We only supply CE tested glowsticks from reputable suppliers or have them tested ourselves. Although the contents of glow sticks are non toxic it is advisable to discard any light sticks that have signs of damage, something we highly recommend.
It is generally believed that glow sticks were invented in the early 1960s by the chemist Ed Chandeross at Bell Labs while searching for a general way to explain chemiluminescence. However, the value of the discovery was not realised and Michael M. Rauhut and Laszio J. Bollyky of American Cyanamid developed and applied the technology to produce the first glow sticks. According to Wikipedia Ed Chandeross holds the patent for glowsticks.
Bubble Mix
1/2 cup of dish detergent (washing up liquid)
5 cups water (soft water is best - if your water is very hard consider using distilled or bottled water)
2 tablespoons glycerine (available at the pharmacy or supermarket).
Mix the ingredients together very carefully, so that you they don't get too bubbly. Pour into storage containers and, if possible, leave overnight to blend.
What are the ingredients of glow sticks?
Glow sticks ingredients vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but the basic ingredients are as follows:
• Fluorescent dye
• Cyalume - phenyl oxalate ester
• Hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide has many uses from propellants to hair bleach to mouth wash. Hair bleach typically has concentrations of 15% while a typical 6 inch glow stick contains a small amount, 0.5%. Medical uses are around the 3% mark.
Quality glowsticks are non-toxic but should not be digested or come into contact with skin as the contents can cause irritation. Any broken glow sticks should be discarded.
To buy glosticks:
http://www.gogogloglo.com/glosticks/product/320
Poi originated with the Maori people of New Zealand, the word poi means ball. Poi was used to increase flexibility, strength and coordination by both men and women but developed into a tradition performance practiced mostly by women and also included story telling and singing choreographed to poi routines. Poi has developed from its roots to now encompass spinning arts from around the world.
Glow poi developed first using glow sticks then LEDs and various strobing lights. Glow poi is popular at festivals and raves for its creative effects. Glowstick poi is also known as glowsticking or glowstringing and by far the most popular and simplest method of glow poi. The best glow sticks to use are safety grade glow sticks or high intensity glow sticks as these enhance the light effects. The glow sticks can also be doubled up to use four different coloured glow sticks for mutli colour poi.
Fire poi is considered to be the most advanced poi method, although this should only be practiced by advanced poi spinners. Chains and kevlar wicks are used in fire poi to create some stunning effects for both the spinner and audience but control is important for safety, a good reason to stick to the glow sticks. Fire poi spinners usually start off on glowstick poi and advance when they achieve the skill level needed.
For poi click here http://www.gogogloglo.com/glofestival?page=3
For glow sticks http://www.gogogloglo.com/glosticks
The Frisbee first started out as a pie tin used to bake the pies of the Frisbie baking company in New England, USA. Hungry students would use the empty pie tins as the first "Frisbies" on college campuses inventing the pas time. Other American colleges have claimed to be the home of 'he who was first to fling the pie tin.' Yale College has even argued that in 1820 a Yale undergraduate named Elihu Frisbie grabbed a passing collection tray from the chapel and flung it out into the campus, thereby becoming the true inventor of the Frisbie. That tale is unlikely to be true since the words 'Frisbie's Pies' was embossed on the original pie tins and from the word 'Frisbie' was coined the common name for the toy later to be changed to Frisbee by Rich Knerr.
Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the Frisbie tin in 1948, in Los Angeles, that could fly much further and with better accuracy. However, their partnership ended before their product had achieved any real success and Morrison went on to produce a plastic disc called the Pluto Platter cashing in on the UFO craze of the period. The Pluto Platter has become the standard design for all Frisbees, with the outer slope know as the "Morrison Slope". Morrison went on to sell the patent to Rich Knerr and A.K. Melin, the joint owners of a toy company, with Morrison receiving over 1 million dollars in royalties.
The trademark "Frisbee" was registered by Knerr and after some clever marketing the sales soared. In 1964 the first professional model went on sale. Ed Headrick further developed the design by adding a band of raised ridges called The Rings of Headrick which helped to stabilize the disc. In 1967 Ultimate Frisbee was invented by students in Maplewood, New Jersey, a sport that is a cross between football, soccer and basketball. Ten years later Frisbee Golf was introduced along with courses and associations.
Fred Headrick went on to set up the Disc Golf Association in 1976. Disc Golf is played by an estimated two million players in the USA and is fast becoming popular in the UK. The modern day Frisbee has sold over two hundred million units to date.
Other companies have further developed the flying discs adding LEDs for night time playing. The leader in this development has been Flashflight with a series of fiber optic discs that flash and glow. Other discs incorporate glow sticks or light sticks to illuminate the disc. The advantage of using glow sticks is that the glow sticks are both tough and waterproof. It is also possible to use the discs without the glow sticks making it a regular flying disc.
For Flashflight discs: http://www.gogogloglo.com/glotoys/product/267
When were glow sticks first used with music?
Although glow sticks were first developed in the 1960s it wasn't until the late 1980s that they were used in clubs and concerts due to their cost. Bands like New Order took the indie music scene into the dance arena and the "Madchester" dance explosion saw band like the Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets and other Acid House bands bringing dance music to the masses. The Hacienda and hundreds of venues soon followed and transformed major venues into clubs spawning underground movements of regular club goers bringing with them the paraphenalia of cheap glow sticks, dayglo colours and UV jewellery.
The scene soon subdivided splitting into a assortment of music cultures, techo, house, rave, breakbeats all enhanced by glosticks and similar products, the latest development being New Rave / Nu-Rave / Neu-Rave. The aesthetics of the New Rave scene are similar to those of the original rave and clubbing scene, being mostly centred around psychedelic visual effects, glowsticks, neon and UV lights or black lights. The bands that lead the way in New Rave are Hot Chip, The Klaxons, The Sunshine Underground and The Rapture although it is generally believed that New Rave is a media construct and the term dance-punk is more appropriate. Again, the use of glowsticks is as prevalent as in the techno and old rave scenes better known as Old School or Old Skool. Other names for glow sticks include: rave sticks, rave lights, rave glow, glo stix, glow lites, neon glowsticks, neon sticks and party sticks.
Glorave glowstick pack
http://www.gogogloglo.com/glosticks/product/341
To make a glow stick you will need the following ingredients.
• 2 litres of distilled water
• 50 mililitres of hydrogen peroxide
• .2 grams of luminol
• 4 grams of sodium carbonate
• .5 grams of ammonium carbonate
• .4 gram copper sulfate pentahydrate
• Protective gloves and eyewear
The ingredients to make a glowstick can be found on the internet, check Google for resources.
Step 1
Combine 1 litre of water with the hydrogen peroxide in a large glass or ceramic mixing bowl.
Step 2
Mix the luminol, copper sulphate, ammonium carbonate and sodium carbonate with 1 litre of water in a second large glass or ceramic mixing bowl.
Step 3
Select a number of clean plastic bottles or test tubes with lids. These will act as tubes for the glosticks - the glow tubes.
Step 4
Pour equal amounts of the two mixtures into the containers and watch them glow.
You have now made chemical glow sticks.
Some of the above ingredients are hazardous and may be harmful if used incorrectly. Gogogloglo does not recommend trying this experiment unless you have experience in chemical usage. It is easy to buy cheap glow sticks as they are now freely available.
If you're an old hand at festivals then this info is probably not for you, although we do have some cool items and tips even for you seasoned festival goers.
FESTIVAL ESSENTIALS - The basics
This list contains the obvious basics to survive a long festival weekend.
1. Shelter. Usually comes in the form of a tent but can consist of anything enclosed from a sleeping bag up to a state of the art vehicle with shower, loo and all the mod cons, these being the choice of the rich and famous - festival jet setters!
2. Clothing. You don't need much, a set of basics for hot weather and a set for cold wet weather. Visit your local army surplus store for a poncho, hat and wellies.
3. Cleaning products. Again the usual here, tooth brush, paste and a pack of wet wipes will help in all the nasty places!
4. Ear plugs. Pardon!
5. A flag and some glow sticks. If you loose your tent you're in a mess - it does happen so get a cool Festival Flag.
FESTIVAL ESSENTIALS - Fun
Festivals are about fun especially if you have kids and on site festival stalls charge a fortune for the fun stuff. Make sure you take your festival stuff along with you, you get a better choice for a fraction of the cost.
1. Glow sticks. A definite festival essential. Take lots of glowsticks as they last for hours and have loads of uses, don't buy the cheapest as they can split and get into all sorts of painful places, eyes for example. Glowsticks are a great way to make some extra cash, take a along a few hundred to sell and they will pay for the weekend!
2. Festival Flags. These are a must for festivals as they look good and get you back home to your crowded spot. Use a telescopic pole and tie on some glosticks for night time tracking.
3. Wind Art. Get into the festival spirit and put up as much wind art as possible. Flags, streamers, turbines and banners. Come on, it's a festival!
4. Lighting. Don't forget a torch, festivals are big dark places when the sun goes down and your tent is ten fields away! Porter Loos don't have lights either so make sure you sit on the seat and nothing sinister. Head torches are perfect for hands free jobbies!
FESTIVAL ESSENTIALS - Ray Mears Bush Craft Style.
If you're reading this Ray then a show on surviving the festival season would put you in a new league.
1. Tent pegs. Obvious!? Not to the hundreds of dudes who have asked us for some spares!
2. Army shovel. Not for a poo pit but for digging a ditch drain around your tent. Very easy, should take 40mins and when they rain comes you get a moat while your neighbour gets a wet sleeping bag. Only has to be the width of a shovel, 6 inches or so and as deep.
3. Tarp. If you have space then take a tarpaulin, the army ones are light and compact. These are good for rain and sun and can be taken to the arenas and used a big umbrellas or something to sit on.
Kites are heavier-than-air devices. They weigh more than the volume of the air they displace. They are flown at the end of a string, line or rope. Kites are aerodynes. In other words, they overcome the force of gravity and are kept in the air by the force of the wind or the forces of wind pressure on the kite. The aerodynamic force involved is called lift. Lift on a kite is perpendicular to the relative wind direction. What is relative wind? It is the actual wind, the actual direction of wind and speed of the wind. The kite reacts to the wind pushing on it. Lift is executed in an upward direction thereby opposing the pull of gravity on the kite.
Newton's Third Law (for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction) helps explain the aerodynamics of kite flight. Think of the kite as flying on an inclined plane and flying in one spot. The kite exerts a downward force upon the air. The air passes over the top edge of the kite and goes down the upper surface of the kite. Remember that air is relatively heavy. As the kite pushes downward, it gets an equal push upward by the air. As this happens, the kite gets an upward counter force and it flies! Newton's Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
For a kite to fly, the air lift potential must be greater than the weight of the kite. For example, if the downward and upward force of the air is equal to the weight of the kite, the sum of all the forces will be zero and the kite will be in a state of equilibrium. It will not fly up or down. If the downward force upon the air is greater than the weight of the kite the upward force will also be greater and the kite will move upward and climb higher. If the downward force is less than the weight of the kite, the upward force will be less and the kite will sink sometimes very quickly, crashing to the ground. Knowing these basic principles can hep us learn how to fly a kite and how to design a kite. Also, knowing the strength of the wind and wind direction are useful in developing a knowledge of the basic moves and tricks in kite flying.
The tail of a kite adds to its stability and balance. It also acts as a drag and for some kites will put a limit on the maximum altitude that can be reached by a particular kite. In designing kites one must consider the pros and cons to each element of design. For example, one can eliminate the tail, but bow out the design for stability and thus achieve greater altitude. Other ways to achieve stability may be in the cover material, the sticks or frames, addition of wings or keels or using shaped wing surfaces. Rudders, airfoil-shaped surfaces and tapering are some other design possibilities.
The basic operation of a glider is the same as any other aircraft. Lift is created by the wings as they move through the air. The big difference is that the glider has no engine, and so it relies on natural forces in the air to stay aloft. Using natural forces, or energy, that creates rising air (lift), gliders can stay in the air for many hours at a time and cover long distances.Because gliders have no power of their own, they must be launched into the air using some other means. This is usually a tow behind a powered aircraft (tug) or by a winch.
Gliders can stay aloft by a number of means. By far the most common is called thermalling. When the ground is heated by the sun, periodically a parcel of heated air ascends, often to many thousands of feet, as the temperature of the air close to the ground becomes higher that its surroundings. If a glider is flown to stay in that column of rising air, by circling, the glider will also be swept aloft.After the pilot reaches the top of the thermal, he flies off, gradually losing height, until he reaches the next one.
A glider moves forward by putting its nose down and losing height. In a sense it "falls" and the energy gained by this drop in height is converted into forward motion. Things are not as bad as it may seem at first glance. Gliders are very efficient and for each metre of height lost a typical club glider will move forward 30 metres (written 30:1). This is known as the Glide Angle and is a measure of the efficiency of the glider. The very best gliders have a glide angle of 60 : 1.
Does a glider need wind to fly? Gliders are not kites. All a glider needs to fly is air flowing over its wings. It’s the pull of gravity that keeps the air flowing over the wings. As a glider flies, it is gently coasting downhill. Coasting downhill, the glider feels the winds, just as a bicyclist feels the wind while coasting downhill. Of course, if the glider flies through rising air, it climbs. Fortunately, air and gravity are not in short supply.
HQ Airglider 40
HQ Airglider 60
HQ Airglider 90
Basically speaking a gyroscope consists of a spinning wheel or spinning rotor which is supported on an axis that is free to move on its own. The wheel is mounted on a pivoting support that allows the rotation around a single axis, or gimbal and by using two gimbals, one mounted inside the other, the gyroscope enables the rotor to move in three degrees of rotational freedom.
Gyroscopes can be found in all sorts of places, aircraft, medical fields, ships, spacecraft and toys. Perhaps the most common example is a bicycle wheel. The gravity defying force keeping the moving bicycle upright is called precession. You can experience this by setting a gyroscope in motion and then try to rotate it on its spinning axis, the force experienced is precession. The same forces are experienced when using a Powerball.
For some in depth and extremely geeky info go to Wikipedia. Someone has spent a very long time detailing this subject, way more time than I have!
Gyroscopes explained...
Neon Pro Powerball
How do helicopters fly?
A helicopter has two rotors, the main rotor on top and another rotor on its tail. The rotors are made in the shape of airfoils. When the helicopter's engine turns the main rotors at high speed counterclockwise (looking from above), the pressure on the bottom side of the rotor is greater than the pressure on the top, making the helicopter lift off straight up into the air.
However, even though they share the same basic way of getting off the ground, helicopters are much more complicated than airplanes. Planes can go forward, up and down, and left and right. Helicopters can do the same, while adding the ability to go straight up, backwards, or just hover in midair.
The key to these extra abilities is that the helicopter pilot can change the angle of the rotor blades. The steeper the angle of the blades, the greater the amount of lift, and the faster the helicopter rises. To go forward or backward, right or left, the pilot tilts the blades in the direction he wants to move.
The need for a tail rotor is that the engine that spins the main rotors counterclockwise also tries to spin the helicopter body clockwise. To stop this the tail rotor produces a force to counter the tendency of the helicopter body to turn, thus stabilizing it or the helicopter would just spin around and around.