Flashbulbs - have you seen one go off?

Hi,

Being a collector of vintage camera equipment as well as being a flashoholic I am a great fan and user of flasbulbs and the large parabolic reflectors they use.

They look identical to a bayonet fit auto bulb, BUT are filled with oxygen, magnesium or zirconium wire + a small explosive charge. Take it from me - they really are a 'mini-sun' that you can hold in your hand. Their light output is the same as the sun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif (in a normal size room) and the colour temperature is the same as well.

For those used to the small flashguns in your average digital compact or even SLR gun is nothing like what these babies can muster! The reaction inside is so violent that the glass shatters (but is held in place by a seriously tough laquer).

Not much runtime, but by heck do they chuck out lumens!!

Anyone out there use them?

Ian,UK

As kids we would throw flashbulbs to make them explode. Later they went through a miniaturization and came on strips for your Instamatic.

Hello Ian,

I remember those... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I remember seeing stars for some time after my picture was taken, and hoping that everything was proper with the first shot. I did not want to "suffer" through a re-shoot.

They were very bright.

I also remember licking the base to improve the contact and sometimes they did not work.

I believe some varieties had a blue tinted laquer to try to improve the color (colour for those of you across the pond /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ). With black and white film, the tint may have been more geared to bring up contrast rather than dealing with color.

There were also light bars consisting of several bulbs in a row. The Polaroid camera allowed 6 or 8 shots in "rapid succession" by using the light bar.

I haven't seen those in a long time. And yes, they are like a mini sun.

Tom

I used them years ago. A while back, a friend who collects light bulbs and other electrical items picked up one -- a Press 40, I think -- in a box lot at an auction. He thought it was some sort of special bulb, so he hooked it up to his Variac on the kitchen table while looking at it very closely. His mother was in another room and saw the flash reflected off a neighbor's house. It took some time for his vision to return to normal. He now knows what a flash bulb looks like.

i also used a cube flash that was 4 sided and would rotate on an old ?126? camera. The years are advancing..... I guess the flash bulbs that used the reflectors stopped being common in the ~late 60s?

My parents' cameras had flash bulbs with the big reflectors.

My first camera, which I still have, was the Kodak Instamatic IIRC. It had the flash cube four flash bulbs in each cube. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Very shortly after that I moved on to electronic flashes. I never even considered sticking with flash bulbs.

I will second what someone else here said. They didn't always work and with film that was a big expense and hassle.

All in all, it makes me nostalgic but I won't go back.

What provided the ignition power for the Instamatics and flash cubes?

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jayflash said:
What provided the ignition power for the Instamatics and flash cubes?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure - the camera did not have batteries back then

A couple of years ago, around '95 or so, American Sience and Surplus (Jerryco) had a pile of old flashbulbs that had a standard screw base. (We actually have a retail outlet for them here in Milwaukee, wich makes up partially for a lack of Fry's, Costco, Ikea, and only one CompUSA in town.)

I bought about seven of them to use as pranks, to put in lamps etc. I had no clue how old or rare they were, or I would have bought them all, sat on them, and then turned them around on e-Bay (once they existed) for a tidy profit. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Anyway, my Dad was the type who liked to jump out of dark hallways, yell "Boo!" at my Mom, sister and I, when we were kids, so I would get him back when I could. The master bathroom had a row of "Hollywood" makeup mirror lights around the vanity and sink.

Right around the time Dad usualy would "retire to the throne room" with the newspaper, I slipped into the bathroom first, unscrewed all the other bulbs, and replaced two of them with flashbubls. I then waited around the corner for him to flip the switch.

I saw my father's shadow in a blue-white box of light defined by the bathroom doorframe, just as I heard the traditional "POP-Tink!" of the bulb.

My father leapt backwards into the hallway, screaming something like "YARRRGH! What the #$@%& was that?"

He had no concept of a flashbulb being used on him as a prank. I had to show him some fresh ones from my stash before he believed me that the entire electrical system in the house hadn't blown up. He's a good sport though, he was begging me for a bulb for a scheme of his own within 60 seconds. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I used some of those years ago, and still have some tucked away somewhere. Do they still make them anymore?

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jayflash said:
What provided the ignition power for the Instamatics and flash cubes?

[/ QUOTE ]

Gotta love google...

This site yielded the following quote:
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For the Eastman Kodak Instamatic camera, a flash cube of 4 bulbs were introduced, that allowed taking 4 images in a row. The later Magicube was noteworthy in that it was set off by a plastic pin striking a pyrotechnic element in the flash to fire the bulbs, so that a battery was not required.

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I had the Magicube in my camera. Apparently the earlier flash cubes did require batteries.

They are still being made and used for extreme applications in much more powerful variations than the old flashcubes. Here is one source, MegaFlash. Make sure to check their gallery to see photographs of what a flashbulb can do.

Many older cameras had different connections to the shutter depending upon whether you were using electronic flash or flashbulbs.

Flashbulbs have a "softer", and longer duration of light from 4 miliseconds to 2 full seconds. Common electronic flash is more in the range of durations from 1/1,000 of a second to 1/10,000 sec. So with electronic flash and it's short duration, the shutter would have a different trigger point for electronic flash to ensure that the shutter would be fully open when the flash "fires". Otherwise the film would only be exposed where the film was uncovered. With flashbulbs and their longer duration of light, the moving shutter would have completed it's travel while the bulb was still putting out light.

140,000 "Rated lumen seconds" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/faint.gif I have one of those 100W bulb-sized ones around here somewhere. When I was a teenager, I swapped-out a couple neighbor's porch lights with them, rang the doorbell, and ran. One of them opened the door and stuck his head out prior to throwing the switch. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif You could take apart the later flashcubes and attach the individual bulbs to arrows or add a little fletch to use as blow gun ammo. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif I guess my Flashaholic roots run pretty deep. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Larry

Hi Larry, I never thought of that for blowgun use. I have a Blowgun or three(OK maybe 4 who's counting?). I won't post what all I shot through them
but I will post it was fun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Topper /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Actually there were several types of flash bulbs, and several ways to set the off.
The most common were probably the M2 and M5, the M2 is about the size of large marble, the M5 about twice that size. The little tiny ones were AG-1, about the size of a peanut, and what is inside a flash cube or magic cube is a variant of the AG-1

These went off in a flash that lasted perhaps 40 milliseconds.

Then there were the Focal Plane or FP lamps. These had a fairly long burn. Single Lens reflex cameras of the era had a moving slit as a shutter, called a focal plane shutter, and the idea was that you could either have the shutter open the whole time the lamp fired, or you could have the lamp light, and retain a more or less constant output level as the slit traveled across the film plane. That took about 30 milliseconds to happen, and the camera had a special setting to fire the flash bulb a few milliseconds before the shutter started across. With high powered flash bulbs like the FP26, it was often possible to use a 1/200th or a second or so.

In addition there were some M5 sized lamps that were gas filled. Their claim to fame was they went off in a hurry, flash duration, literally a few milliseconds.

Just about all flash bulbs were plastic coated. Few envelopes survived the flash. The plastic kept them more or less in one piece, although most had dozens of cracks in the glass envelope after they fired.
Flash cubes were fired by external power. On most camera it was 3 volts from pair of alkaline batteries. It wasn't overly reliable because with all the contacts involved it was tough to get enough current into the flash cube reliably. The more traditional approach is called a BC flash unit. A 15 or 22.5 Volt dry cell charges a 100uF capacitor. Close the contacts and the 15 or 22.5V has little trouble with even not so great contacts, and fires the flash bulb. Minox flash cube units use the 15V in the older one's, and PX825's in the newer ones. However the 15 and 22.5 Volt batteries have become both very expensive and hard to find, and PX825's is now also hard to find. I adapted mine to use a pair of DL1/3N's (3 volt lithiums) in place of the 15V battery. Between the 6 volts and the 100uF cap, it works fine, and of course shelf life is just aobut forever.

Magicubes were self powered. I had though they used a peizo electric element to fire, but another poster pointed out it was actually a pyrotechnic device. Either way, the camera whacked it, and it went off.

The Flash on Polaroids uses the battery in the film cartridge to fire the flash. The Polapulse battery is a very interesting creature. It has enormous electrode surface area, although not a lot of reactant, so the amp hour capacity is very modest, but the huge surface area allows it to put out 20 amperes for a second or two that it takes to run the motors to push the film through rollers. The battery contacts are actually very large to provide a low impedance path out of the battery

Even in the mid 1960's you could get electronic flashes that could put out as much light as a flash bulb, but you definitely had to pay for the honor. The Honeywell P65's
could make smoke rise off the printed page at close range!

Yes, they were great. As long as you were on the right end of them. I remember we had a Polaroid, maybe circa 1964 or 65 with a flash gun and the big flash gun with the blue plastic blast shield on the front of it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I have a couple old cameras that were pro-level at the time they were made, a Yashica Twin Lens Reflex and a Speed Graphic. I think both have a setting for either bulb or electronic flash.

I always took a pack of Magicubes on camping trips.

If you took fine steel wool or cotton balls, and carefully sliced off the top of the cube, there was a little cavity behind the backs of the 4 reflectors. You could then pack a cotton ball or two, or fine steel wool, (my favorite because it work even wet) and triggered the flash, INSTANT
Fire!

Then shake it out into you pile of kindling and away you went! If it didn't work the first time, it was easy to repeat. We used to have contests to see who could use the fewest matches on trip until I figured this out, and then we had "who could use the fewest Magicubes" constests.

I camped a lot where it was damp and wet and you needed a HOT fire to get stuff going, so steel wool worked great.

On a similar note, the best easy fire starters around now are those small bags of corn chips, either Fritos or Doritos, the unflavored work best for me. They're obviously waterproof, so I throw a half dozen of the smallest bags in my pack or bag. I keep a small pack of waterproof, windproof matches, pop open the bag, light a match, drop it in, and set the whole thing under my kindling stack, (which I have thoughtfully prearranged with a hollow just that size.) Even if the kindling is damp, the chips burn so hot, (lots of vegetable oil in those puppies!) that it will dry out the kindling and once again, away you go!!

On the raft trip in May, I watched the teenagers struggle for an hour trying to get a fire going after a night of steady rain. It was a test of their skills and they finally got a small fire going, after lots of blowing, smoke and heartache. I walked over to my pack, grabbed a bag, walked over to a nearby tree, grabbed a big clump of wet moss and wrung it out good, then rubbed it on my pants to blot it. I grabbed some strips of hanging bark that was under a dead tree, and a few small sticks from the same area, then split up a larger branch, walked over next to their fire, set it up and had it going in about 45 seconds! Boy were they mad!!!

Experience and guile top youth and enthusiasm again!


Bill

I guess it was the magicubes. I remember taking them apart and throwing them so they would fire. I recall them being around for a trip I took to Washington D.C. in 1977. Some people had the flashbulb cameras and some had the xenon (?) strobe. I think the 110 cameras were made with either.

makes ya wonder how new flashes work over and over i bet the old ones was brighter i vagly recall them

[ QUOTE ]
bwaites said:
On a similar note, the best easy fire starters around now are those small bags of corn chips, either Fritos or Doritos, the unflavored work best for me. They're obviously waterproof, so I throw a half dozen of the smallest bags in my pack or bag. I keep a small pack of waterproof, windproof matches, pop open the bag, light a match, drop it in, and set the whole thing under my kindling stack, (which I have thoughtfully prearranged with a hollow just that size.) Even if the kindling is damp, the chips burn so hot, (lots of vegetable oil in those puppies!) that it will dry out the kindling and once again, away you go!!

On the raft trip in May, I watched the teenagers struggle for an hour trying to get a fire going after a night of steady rain. It was a test of their skills and they finally got a small fire going, after lots of blowing, smoke and heartache. I walked over to my pack, grabbed a bag, walked over to a nearby tree, grabbed a big clump of wet moss and wrung it out good, then rubbed it on my pants to blot it. I grabbed some strips of hanging bark that was under a dead tree, and a few small sticks from the same area, then split up a larger branch, walked over next to their fire, set it up and had it going in about 45 seconds! Boy were they mad!!!

Experience and guile top youth and enthusiasm again!


Bill

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You learn something new every day.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wow.gif ! Bill has the *BEST* firestarter ideas around. Say, next time I light the BBQ I will do so with a USL and a bag of corn chips in tribute to the master himself. Cooking with Bill /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Who needs matches?


Back on topic about flashbulbs, has anybody seen Willie Hunt and his unbelievably powerful flash?
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