The very petite Nora Doll, and even smaller Dolly Little, do not want to be left out of the fun of blowing up hot water bottles until they explode. But they are a little nervous about it, so we made a special assembly to allow them to safely share the task. Based on their blowing pressure tests, we expected Nora to carry most of the load getting it started, which requires pressures near 2psi, with Dolly contributing more once the pressure leveled out toward 1 psi, as it always does with these particular hot water bottles. (Note that even 1 psi is still two to three times the pressure of the av...

The very petite Nora Doll, and even smaller Dolly Little, do not want to be left out of the fun of blowing up hot water bottles until they explode. But they are a little nervous about it, so we made a special assembly to allow them to safely share the task. Based on their blowing pressure tests, we expected Nora to carry most of the load getting it started, which requires pressures near 2psi, with Dolly contributing more once the pressure leveled out toward 1 psi, as it always does with these particular hot water bottles. (Note that even 1 psi is still two to three times the pressure of the average round balloon!) So imagine our surprise to see Nora struggle, and Dolly step up to get the inflation started. We suspect that Nora's cheeks had gotten a bit sore from blowing several balloons previously, while Dolly's surprisingly strong face muscles kept her soft cheeks from ballooning out, as they do when she blows on the tuba and other horns. You can see the effort both ladies exert, while maintaining good humor - even after a rather kinetic explosion that took place a bit closer to Dolly that we had intended! Fortunately, neither emerged any worse for the wear - and both are almost certainly among the smallest females ever to perform this feat.