Expected 40 lumens, got 4,000,000

Take a look at this bulb https://www.dropbox.com/s/0l19ytuvdprde3f/20160123_231408.jpg?dl=0

I was given it today as people know I am into old bulbs and torches, and with 'Philips Holland' and 4V on the top it looked like a low voltage submarine bulb or some such. Well I cleaned it and tried it at 1.2V, all I got was a glow from the very thin filament. So I tried an 18650 and honestly, I have never been hit by such a massive blast of heat and light - it was a flashbulb - which went off about 18 inches from my face! Now, I am a collector of old flash gear and have never seen such a bulb before - they always have either wire wool or just primer paste - this had nothing but a filament, so the burning must have been the gas as the filament was intact after the bulb went off. I ended up with nausea and a headache after the shock of it - and as you can see the bulb remains unchanged inside as nothing physical burned - it was empty.

Just sharing this as I have never had anything as bright in all my life. It was like being on the surface of the Sun - just heat and overwhelming light. Even aiming the brightest LED full into your face is nothing compared.

So what was it inside the bulb? Oxygen?

wow.
Wish you had a video running when that happened! glad you are ok...well physically

MIB Neutralizer? Do you remember everything leading up to that moment? No missing gaps of time?

Wow basically says it all. Hope you are ok now.

Maybe next time you turn it on make a video...but with lots of safety equipment.

I got no idea what could possibly be in that bulb but intruders should be warned.

Did you end up with an instant tan after this incident?

Flashy808 said:

Wow basically says it all. Hope you are ok now.

Maybe next time you turn it on make a video...but with lots of safety equipment.

I got no idea what could possibly be in that bulb but intruders should be warned.

Click to expand...

With old gear there are always surprises - and this was a bigger surprise than usual. But with these old flashbulbs you only get one blast of light then they are used up - so not sure what to do with it now... It sat there for 65+ years just waiting to be used. I have a few more, I will make a video to share with you all. I need to rog something up with a high shutter speed to catch the peak intensity. I'll put it in a reflector so as to show what millions of lumens looks like in a torch.

Keep us updated on this. I know there used to be some camera flash bulbs that were basically used to produce a single high power shot from a very low voltage. Could this be one of those? I look this up when I was a kid, but never actually got my hands in one