How to Make a Super Ball

When I was a kid one of my favorite toys was a super ball. This incredible bouncy ball would bounce all the way up to the treetops if thrown down with enough force. Then it would continue to bounce again and again and again once it made contact with a hard surface again. The killer fun about a super ball is that it bounced in every direction. It did not come straight down and bounce straight back up. Once it hit the ground, it could have bounced left or right or straight back at you.

It is amazing how much fun I had with that simple 99cent toy. My friends and I would waste hours playing keep-a-way-catch (a bounce the Super Ball in the middle where another player was standing who was suppose to catch the ball to leave the center, at which time the person who threw the ball would have to go into the center) and tops (a bottle cap was place on the ground equal distance between two players. Each had to throw the Super Ball and hit the cap and try to get it to flip over. Points were scored when the top was flipped over by one player and the other player did not catch the Super Ball on the first bounce.) Very simple games and loads of fun back then...But life was more simple back then.

It has been over 50 years since I last played with a Super Ball but it still holds fond memories for me of my childhood. So I guess you can imagine my excitement when I came across a recipe for how to make a Super Ball? It is really simple;

Mix 20 ml(milliliters) of sodium silicate solution (sodium silicate is also know as liquid glass and should be available at most hardware, craft, and hobby stores) with 5 ml (milliliters) of ethyl alcohol in a glass container and stir and mix it well it with a popsicle stick. (For you techno-geeks) The ethyl alcohol replaces the oxygen in the silicate which creates a solid but crumbly silicon polymer.

While mixing the solution of sodium silicate and ethyl alcohol will begin to harden. With plastic glove on remove the solution from its mixing container and roll the glob between the palms of your hand for 2 minutes of so to form a smooth ball. Add a few drops of water as necessary to help the chemical glob bind. In a short period of time you will have a Super Ball. And it will be every bit as bouncy as the one I remember from my childhood.

I wonder if I could convince some of my old childhood friends to get out of their rocking chairs for a few games of tops and keep-a-way-catch?