BIGGEST PUMPKIN IN THE WORLD

  Probably the Biggest Pumpkin in the World Made Children's Eyes Light Up

October 2003 (Newstream) -- The question on everyone's lips has been answered. Who, at Halloween, the highlight of the year for all spirits and ghosts, has the largest pumpkin in the world? Arguably the biggest pumpkin in the world was not grown just in time for Halloween in some field in Texas, as you might expect. This pumpkin was in fact developed in "Good old Germany", or more precisely in the Chemical Park at the headquarters of Bayer Polymers, one of the largest plastics producers in the world. And all this within just a few minutes....as if by magic.

And it was the sheer amazement on the faces of the little vampires, witches, magicians and ghosts when they discovered the huge pumpkin, that really made this world premiere. Their eyes lit up as this mighty vegetable appeared out of nowhere from the fall mist and floated skywards. But for the little Linus' among them clutching the obligatory security blanket this was the greatest adventure. After all, Charlie Brown's friend from the comic series "Peanuts" has been waiting every year in vain at Halloween for "The Great Pumpkin" to light up, rise into the air and give the children toys and candy. Linus, your wait is finally over!

However, the fulfillment of a life-long dream for Snoopy & Co's chum is due not to the tireless efforts of gardeners around the globe, but to a brilliant invention from the small company Noelle Industrielle Umwelttechnik GmbH based in Germany. This is because behind the gruesome mask of the monster pumpkin lies a brightly illuminated Helimax Powermoon (www.powermoon.de). This "moon on a string" has a diameter of 5.5 meters and contains four special 4,000 watt lamps in its helium-filled belly. They are as bright as halogen lamps with 35,000 (!) watts output. When it is floated to a height of 50 meters, the Powermoon can easily illuminate an area with a radius of 800 meters. Even from a distance of 1.5 kilometers, the little sun still creates twilight conditions.

A balloon is no good if it loses its gas. And without the special Conti-Tech membranes based on the Bayer rubber Levapren, which are gastight, and at the same time translucent, the innovative design of the Helimax Powermoon would have been impossible to realize. As Managing Director Jürgen Noelle explains, "Conventional rubber-based material used for helium balloons simply does not let enough light through because the outer skin has to be packed with fillers such as graphite". The purpose of this illuminated balloon is to provide light that is free from glare and harsh shadows without the need for masts or complex support structures, and that can be used at nighttime on construction sites, at sporting events or even on film sets. A bright idea in every sense of the word.

Whenever this bright idea has a few hours to spare between assignments, it puts on its orange shell and makes young Linus' dream of the great pumpkin at Halloween come true. And then it moves on to light up a motorsport event at the Formula 1 Nürburgring circuit, for example.