Airborne floating lift-weight balanced toy

In an airborne, free floating, lift-weight balanced object for use as a manually manipulable amusement device, said object having:

• (a) a closed envelope encompassing a volume of lighter-than-air gas, said envelope being made of an unstretchable skin which is substantially impervious to the passage of said gas therethrough, and having:
• (b) ballast means fixed in position with respect to the envelope to tend to balance the weight of the object to equal the lifting effect of the gas;
• the improvement including:
• A. at least one ballast member adapted to be adhered to the object fixedly with respect to the skin of the envelope, said ballast member being constituted as a plurality of weight control modules spirally arranged with respect to each other;
• B. fastening means operative to cause said modules to adhere in fixed position with respect to the skin of the envelope, to allow said modules to be removed from said fixed position with respect to said skin, and to cause said modules to readhere in fixed position with respect to said skin;
• C. said modules being serially removable from their fixed position with respect to the skin from the outer end of the spiral toward the inner end thereof;
• D. said fastening means and said ballast member constituting at least part of said ballast means;
• and
• E. said ballast member being fastened with respect to said skin in position such that the removal from outer end toward the inner end of said spiral of one or more of said weight control modules from fixed position with respect to the skin of the envelope will not appreciably affect the static balance of the object.

In an airborne, free floating, lift-weight balance object for use as a manually manipulation amusement device, said object having:

• (a) a closed envelope encompassing a volume of lighter-than-air gas, said envelope being made of an unstretchable skin which is substantially impervious to the passage of said gas therethrough, and having:
• (b) ballast means fixed in position with respect to the envelope to tend to balance the weight of the object to equal the lifting effect of the gas;
• the improvement including:
• A. at least one ballast member adapted to be adhered to the object fixedly with respect to the skin of the envelope, said ballast member being constituted as a plurality of weight control modules arranged in a series of contiguous rings;
• B. means operative to cause said modules to be initially fastened in fixed position with respect to the skin of said envelope, to allow said modules to be removed from said fixed position with respect to said skin, and to cause said modules to be refastened in fixed position with respect to said skin;
• C. said modules being serially removable from their fixed position with respect to the skin from the outer ring toward the inner ring;
• D. said fastening means and said ballast member constituting at least part of said ballast means;
• and
• E. said ballast member being fastened with respect to said skin in position such that the removal of one or more of said weight control modules from a fixed position with respect to the skin of the envelope from the outer ring toward the inner ring will not appreciably effect the static balance of the object.