A history of the flash

Papa Tango

I See Things...
Itinerant Pragmatist
Joined
Feb 10, 2023
Messages
395
Post Score
1,126
Location
Corning, NY
This morning, I confronted the mess in the basement which is all of the old camera and darkroom equipment I have. It cohabitates with a larger quantity of amateur radio stuff--but that is a different story. :unsure:

In this circus is a collection of small on-camera flashes of indeterminate age, a complete Photogenic AA studio system, several Heiland products such as Strobonar 60S units, and the infamous "Star Wars" reflector flash for my press camera. There were bulbs galore. So I stepped over to the shop computer and went to look a few of them up. That's when I found the video shown below.

Do you know why Sylvania had "Blue Dot" as part of its advertising? Or why do the first flash bulbs look exactly like a regular light bulb? I had no idea until I watched this.

Hang in there for the first couple minutes--the host comes off kind of like that professor you once had that you could not decide whether to take notes or take a nap... :sleep: But it gets better, and take notes!

 
That was most interesting, thanks for posting. I never realised that the first flashbulbs were actually developed from the earlier magnesium system.
 

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