so these are a few videos of our latest attempt at flying.  and so far our most successful!  this balloon was approximately 1.15 cubic feet of internal volume, and used 13 candles on this attempt.  12 of the 13 candles were "relighting" candles, which typically contain magnesium, which will increase the heat produced.  the videos missed the most awesome part of the attempt, i'm not sure if that was due to point of view or the pausing of recording (we had an issue with an excessively large video file that caused my phone some problems when transferring it).  one of the strings used to connect the fuel sources to the canopy was wrapped around the support for the fuel source, however when it achieved its maximum buoyancy the envelope was pulling that string taught with no parts of the envelope being other wise supported.  the total weight of the balloon as tested was 30 grams, the estimated weight of the envelope alone was about 11 grams.  my current attempts at constructing the gondola portion have been less oriented toward building something lightweight enough to catch flight, and primarily aimed at creating a stable base for the candles with a form that can be adapted to a lightweight version.  at this point in our endeavor it seems primarily useful to provide a stable base for the candles and something that the envelope is not likely to lift, for the sake of finding a balance between the construction of the envelope and the heat source before releasing a balloon of doom on the world at large. sadly this balloon caught fire for the second time during this test, and i believe clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the alum solution.  the fact that the tissue paper was able to catch fire, be blown out, and continue with the test is rather impressive.  following this i will post a picture of the fuel source and the inside of the envelope after the test, which shows quite a bit of discoloration that would have likely caused the tissue paper to catch fire if it had not been treated with alum.