[rollei_list] Re: OT: Jacob Riis: Shedding Light on NYC's 'Other Half'
----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Ridings" <dlridings@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 2:03 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT: Jacob Riis: Shedding Light on NYC's 'Other Half'
On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 11:02 PM, Daniel Ridings <dlridings@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 11:00 PM, Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There is also an accompanying NPR story and video of an 18 year old who now shoots with magnesium flash powder, as Riis did... that stuff 
looks nasty.




Keyboard is messing up ...
From what I remember, it really could be nasty too, if you got it 
wrong. Photography was dangerous in more way than one.

Daniel
There were various sorts of flash powder. Some had a tendency to explode sometimes resulting in serious injury. Power was widely used for press work up to the introduction of flash bulbs in the early 1930's. Some flash guns were electrical but many used a flint wheel similar to a cigarette lighter. Flash powder will still deliver more light than any other source for still photography and is useful for large interiors. I don't know if its made any more because it would be regulated to death by now. There are formulas for making flash powder to be found in some old photography handbooks, I think I would be a bit leary of actualy trying any of them. In the 1920's Kodak made flash paper. This was composed of paper sheets saturated with a chemical. It was stretched on a frame and set off by the same sort of flint spark mechanism used for powder. The idea was to have a relatively safe light source. I am not sure of the date of introduction of flash bulbs but think it was about 1932. The first ones were made by Wabash who also made light bulbs. Wabash was eventually bought by Sylvania who also introduced a dot of somethign that would turn color if the envelope leaked and air got in. As in "Blue Dots Mean Sure Shots". Early flash bulbs could be set off by static electricity and could be fired if in contact with another bulb. The latter could be serious since a bag or pocketfull of bulbs could all go off at once causeing serious burns. Later bulbs were modified to make them safer from both problems. BTW a common trick for getting more light was to wedge a second flash bulb into the refector in contact with the first. Both would fire off although the light from the second was perhaps half of its normal output. 

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx




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