Flash powder

BetterSense · Nov 19, 2009

What is flash powder?

For how long was it used (when did flashbulbs come into use)?

Can you still buy it? How do you use it?

I remember seeing a Weegie photo with people on a fire escape, at night of course. He said that he backed up across the street and "used flash powder". In the picture, it looks like the whole street is lit up. Was flash powder really bright? Is there still applications for flash powder today?

nickandre · Nov 19, 2009

I think you can make it with magnesium. You can use as much of it as you want, so if you use more, it's brighter. Not entirely sure how you fire it off. Some sort of holder probably but you'd have to find one.

hmm... http://madhattermagicshop.com/magicshop/product_info.php?products_id=3678

BetterSense · Nov 19, 2009

Have you ever used it? How much do you need to equal a flashbulb? 1oz doesn't sound like very much. I think photographic flash powder is magnesium mixed with potassium nitrate (or barium nitrate). I can buy potassium nitrate (saltpeter) in stores but I'm not sure where one gets powdered magnesium or what the proper proportions are.

I'm also worried that the magic powder might be optimized for "bang" rather than being bright.

Denis K · Nov 19, 2009

Take a look at the wiki page for Jacob Riis at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Riis for the history of flash in America.

One of the last strongholds of pre-electronic flash was cave photography. To photograph a cave properly you need "big light". Chris Howes book, "Images Below" is supposed to have flash power formulas with guide numbers. It might be a good place to start. You could go down to your local library research desk and do an inter-library loan for his book. It might make an unusual and interesting read.

I also suspect the civil war recreator photographers also know how to do it today. You might find one and ask him who sources their supplies and how they control exposure.

Q.G. · Nov 19, 2009

The Wikipedia page on flash powder is the quickest way to find out things about flash powder composition.

Anscojohn · Nov 20, 2009

BetterSense said:
Have you ever used it? How much do you need to equal a flashbulb? 1oz doesn't sound like very much. I think photographic flash powder is magnesium mixed with potassium nitrate (or barium nitrate). I can buy potassium nitrate (saltpeter) in stores but I'm not sure where one gets powdered magnesium or what the proper proportions are.

I'm also worried that the magic powder might be optimized for "bang" rather than being bright.

******
At my cabin I have an old Facts and Formulas book which gives several concoctions for flash powder. I read years ago one could tell the real old time photographers by the powder burns on hand and arm, and bald spots on the side of the head from flash powder singeburns.

Denis K · Nov 20, 2009

Q.G. said:
The Wikipedia page on flash powder is the quickest way to find out things about flash powder composition.

That has plenty of info on flash powders but not on photographic applications. It looks like most of the people making flash powder today use it for magic acts and concert applications where photography is not the intended use.

Denis K

df cardwell · Nov 20, 2009

The thing that went along with flash powder was smoke. LOTS of smoke. A gadget was introduced (c. 1910) to both capture the smoke and 'provide a softer, more natural light'. Picture an umbrella frame on a stand, with a 3 or 4 foot shroud of lightweight muslin hanging down over the flashpan. Looked like Grannie's budgie cage. Worked great. Fire the flash, collect the smoke, gather the bottom of the shroud and take it outside. Handy, except when they caught fire.

Somewhere, I don't remember where, Edw. Weston shared his account of doing a portrait in a posh mansion in California, and trying the infernal device. It lit up like a mantle in a lantern. He was hemmed in by the camera, tripod, sitters, and attendants. The huge parlor windows were varnished shut. Edw. had to shatter a window to throw the whole dratted thing into the garden. Mother hysterical, baby screaming, Father having a heart attack. Edw. went straight to Mexico, and why not ?

In the old days of Banquet photos, the shot was composed carefully while the money was collected.
THEN, the arc lamps were set off, the exposure made, and the getaway accomplished before the ash fell,
often ruining the ladies' fine gowns.

Any wonder why flashbulbs were thought a good idea ?

Anyway, have fun with flashpowder. You might contact the Eastman House, or search the Library of Congress before you try making some.

We'll follow your career with great interest.

.

Dave Pritchard · Nov 20, 2009

The film "Public Enemies" has several scenes with flash powder in use. No formulas, just showing street-level use of flash powder.

Barry S · Nov 20, 2009

When I was a kid, I found an old box of flash powder in my father's misc. weird photo stuff. I tried to take a photo with it in my parent's basement and the place filled with smoke. A lot of smoke! I ran out of there and decided using flash powder indoors was insane. I'm pretty sure my father made it out ok, too.

DWThomas · Nov 20, 2009

In the late 1950s I was rummaging through an old box of junk my father had stashed in the basement and discovered a cardboard cylindrical container with a push-on tin lid that proclaimed "Flash Powder." It was an official commercial product. Teenage brain dancing with visions of some pyrotechnics to impress my friends, I gently eased the lid off to find ...

... old autmotive grease fittings.

Oh well, maybe it's why I'm still around today!

BetterSense · Nov 20, 2009

The film "Public Enemies" has several scenes with flash powder in use. No formulas, just showing street-level use of flash powder.

I also noticed those giant flares for taking nighttime motion-pictures. As portrayed in the movie, they were really bright as well.

Photo Engineer · Nov 20, 2009

The carbon arc lamp was popular for many years as they could remain lit for hours. In fact, they are still used in some places for lighting large areas for photography.

PE

BetterSense · Nov 20, 2009

I think they still use carbon arc-lamps in theaters for spotlights, although fancier HID lights are catching on from what I understand. The flares in Public Enemy looked rather like a giant Sparkler firework.

Ray Rogers · Nov 20, 2009

BetterSense said:
I think they still use carbon arc-lamps in theaters for spotlights, although fancier HID lights are catching on from what I understand.

I think you are correct. The constant "hum" of the HID's are quite noisy though, IIRC.

I have a carbon arc lamp, actually.
Haven't figured out quite what to do with it though... any ideas?

benjiboy · Nov 20, 2009

I bought a flash powder flash, with a drum of flash powder at a camera club auction for five shillings as a curiosity (before we went decimal in 1971) I can't remember what happened to it , it must have been thrown out the last time I moved house twenty years ago.

mopar_guy · Nov 20, 2009

You people are Pyromaniacs!

brian d · Nov 20, 2009

You people are Pyromaniacs!

yep

Ray Rogers · Nov 21, 2009

mopar_guy said:
You people are Pyromaniacs!

Not being into killing etc., I used to remove the gunpowder from bullets and recycle it into small homemade fireworks... does that count?

Rick A · Nov 21, 2009

mopar_guy said:
You people are Pyromaniacs!

And your point?

Q.G. · Nov 21, 2009

ralnphot said:
And your point?

Maniacs usually need treatment.
But they need to see what they are, and that they do, first.

Perhaps you could see that post in that light, and understand its point then?

mopar_guy · Nov 21, 2009

ralnphot said:
And your point?

Don't get me wrong, I like a good flash as well as the next man. There's no law against setting off a flammable substance and singeing your photographic subject.

You may want to have a fire extinguisher handy!:rolleyes:

Denis R · Nov 22, 2009

thanks to NPR

description and video

df cardwell · Nov 22, 2009

Denis,

Yep, that's about the size of it. A few decades ago,
flash powder was fairly easy to get, and we used it in the theatre for .... well, flashes.

Take a normal plug fuse, remove the window, and apply the flash powder.

It was, if I recall, desirable to be sure the circuit was broken before you added the flash powder,
and the deluxe version of the gadget had 2 plugs, one with a neat little red light bulb to show whether you were hot.
You tended to use these on a larger stage, rather than in a small studio space.
Don't ask where that morsel of information came from.

I suppose in today's refined times, this would be considered a bomb,
and that is probably right. Use a number 2 flash bulb instead.

Aurum · Nov 23, 2009

ralnphot said:
And your point?

Disappeared over the horizon, on fire, and accompanied by large quantities of smoke several posts ago!

I'm also not sure where my eyebrows landed

Flash powder

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency