From a posting by Sterling Johnson to the SoapBubbleFanciers group on Yahoo.
He did an excellent job so with his permission I'm including the list here. Enjoy!
Sterling here.
I have been asked a few times about books on bubbles or useful to bubble
people, and thought it would be advantageous for me to start a topic
about what books we have and that others might want to have. So,
assuming this is of interest to anyone but me, I offer suggestions from
my library with some comments, and I invite any responses form others
about books I haven't mentioned or comments on those I did mention.
_Category #1: The essential books_
1. Soap Bubbles by C.V. Boys : there are various versions of this book
(I think Tom has 3 or 4), and it is the most creative and provocative
book I know of and only 100 years old. I believe that serious bubblers
reread this book every year or two and always find something new to
marvel at.
2. The Science of Soap Films and Soap Bubbles by Cyril Isenberg; more
science than almost any of us can absorb: if you are serious about soap
bubbles, you ought to read this so you know all of the basics.
_Category #2: Performers' books for the layman:_
3. Bubble Magic by Tom Noddy: it not only teaches all of the best
tricks that Tom invented or adapted, it contains commentary by Tom that
is DEEP WISDOM. The illustrations are great. It is out of print, but
you may be able to pick up a used copy at Amazon or B&N.com. I like
Louis Pearl's book (#4) and Richard Faverty's (#5), but this is the one
I love.
4. Sudman's Bubble-ology Guide by Louis Pearl: Louis is a great performer, holder of
the patent on the bubble trumpet, former owner of Tangent Toy Company
(the best bubble toys out there), and a very nice guy. His book is a
good primer on tricks with bubbles. He also has a good video (which I
think he doesn't like) that shows you how to do it. The book, out of
print, should be available on Amazon or B&N.com.
5. Professor Bubbles' Official Bubble Handbook by Richard Faverty (a/k/a Professor Bubbles).
Richard's book, like Louis', is a good place for a newbie to start.
Richard performed widely, and as a photographer, he also brought some of
the best of bubble photos to the world. He made the bubble I walked
through during the Exploratorium's bubble festivals. He gave me the
formula which with some variations, I use today. Incidentally, he does
photography about 8 days a week in Las Vegas and many performers I know
have gone there just to have him do their professional photos. The book
is out of print and may also be available used at Amazon or B&N.
6. The Unbelievable Bubble Book by John Cassidy (Klutz): this book
introduced bubbles to a wide audience. Lots of the photos came from
the Exploratorium's bubbles festivals in the 1980s. It is often
attached to a working model of David Stein's Bubble Thing. The book has
been replaced with a newer version that doesn't show pictures of Richard
and Tom and me. But the old version may be had used at Amazon or B&N.
_Category #3_: Teaching with bubbles: this is a diverse category, and I
offer these with less comments just so you can go investigate if it
interests you. If you are invited to perform at a bubble festival, you
can appear incredibly wise in suggesting ways to present bubbles if you
have read these.
7. Experiments with Bubbles by Robert Gardner (Enslow, 1995)
8. Demonstrating science with soap films by David Lovett (IOP
Publishing, 1994)
9. Soap bubbles in Art and Education (Science Culture Technology
Publishing, 1998):
Goran taught physics in Sweden and has presented with Tom in Europe. He uses bubbles in unusual ways. This book is published or distributed from Hong Kong, but if you are interested and cannot find it, contact Tom or me for contact info.
...&...
9b. Experiments with Soap Bubbles and Soap Films (© 2006 Göran Rämme, ISBN: 91-631-6999-1)
From the back cover: Göran Rämme is a retired lecturer at the department of physical chemistry University of Uppsals, Sweden and has been devoted to the study of soap films and soap bubbles for a long time. In this book, being the second published book on selected experiments, the reader is invited to explore and enjoy the magic world of soap films and soap bubbles under the guidance of the author.
Note from Keith: Goran asked me to post his name and contact information for those folks interested in communicating with him. So, here it is, along with a picture of, “...my apparatus on my garage roof for continuous production of bubbles.”
Universitetslektor Göran Rämme
Department of Physical Chemistry
Uppsala University
Box 579
S-751 23 Uppsala, Sweden
Tel: +46 (18) 4713639
Fax: +46 (18) 4713654
E-mail: goran.ramme@fki.uu.se
Bubble-ology by Jacqueline Barber (GEMS series, Lawrence Hall of
Science, 1986): good read for pre-high school students
10. Soap films and bubbles by Ann Wiebe (AIMS series, 1991): lots of
things to link bubbles with other science and math for grades 4-9
11. Build up to bubbles by Art Johnson (Didax, 1997) using geometry and
soap films, for grades 5-10
12. Bubble festival by Jacqueline Barber (GEMS series, Lawrence Hall of
Science, 1992): a good book for K-6 ages using bubble stations as a way
to experience bubbles in a variety of experiences
13. Bubbles by Kimberly Robinson (Teacher Created Materials, 1991)
integrates writing, experiments, etc. for younger children
14. Fun with water and bubbles by Heidi Gold-Dworkin (McGraw-Hill 2000)
activities for understanding bubbles for young children
_Category #4: Tangentially related books:_
15. Universal foam by Sidney Perkowitz (Walker & Co, 200) looks at
foam and bubbles in a variety of contexts (e.g., aerogel, a foam of
metal used on spaceships to collect dust from comets)
16. On growth and form by D'Arcy Thompson (various editions, originally
published in 1917): a fertile mind looks at the connections between
similar forms in diverse parts of nature, and helps interpret why.
Chapter 4 discusses surface tension, bubbles and form in nature that
result from similar processes. This like Boys is deep thinking about
how the world works.
_Category #5: Higher-tech:_ One way for performers to improve
techniques, tools and formulas is to dive into technical texts. The
math is often overwhelming, but you can read to see the meaning behind
the math. I suspect that many potential advances in what we do will
result from something that is already known and written about, but a bit
hard to read and digest. Here's for the hearty:
17. The acoustic bubble by TG Leighton (Academic Press, 1994): lots
of stuff on sound, motion of bubbles and drops, forces, etc.
18, Cavitation by Ronald Young (Imperial College Press, 1999) cavitation
is the process of bubbles that are created around propellers and other
areas of very pressure in moving fluids that rapidly collapse. Some
info on sonoluminesence (when bubbles collapsing create light and very
very briefly temperatures higher than the surface if the sun, and which,
theoretically could be harnessed to make cold fusion).
19. Mathematics and optimal form by Hildebrandt and Tromba (Scientific
American Library, 1985) soap films, minimal surfaces, pictures of Mr.
Noddy 20+ years ago, and a good feel for the ways mathematicians think
about some of what we do. Tom can tell you more about this book and his
involvement with the field of math (ask him: he is great story teller).
20 McCutcheon's Emulsifiers and Detergents (McCutcheons, published
yearly): this is the source book used by detergent designers to find out
details on ingredients, who makes them, characteristics, LBL numbers,
etc. If you want to do research, this ought to be in your library
21. Soap films: studies of their thinning by Mysels and Shinoda
(Pergamon Press, 1959) good fundamental treatise on how soap films work,
marginal regeneration, and lots of details. Extensive bibliography. (I
got my copy through interlibrary loan service: $.50 plus the cost of
copying 100 pages)
22. Soap films by ASC Lawrence (Bell & Sons, 1929) really good
fundamental text on soap films (the author was an assistant to Dewar who
did a lot of pioneering research in soaps). Also got this through
interlibrary loan service.
_Category #6: Other: _people's interest diverge (yours may have stopped
after category #1). I won't list the other books I keep with my bubble
books but will say something about categories. I have books on
performing (how to create a character, the business of performing,
promoting yourself as a performer). I have books on creativity, how to
think outside the box as you think about your art, performing or
anything else. I have books on related skills (juggling, magic) that
may offer some fresh perspective. I have some books on spirituality
because I believe that performing bubbles brings out essential parts of
ourselves and touches essential parts of others, and a spiritual
perspective about What It All Means is useful/essential.
So, there it is. Use or comment as you see fit.
Sterling