Graflex.org

[kmmonk]

Hi.

Should be a fairly easy one for you experts but suprisingly difficult to find the answer to quickly on the web:

What would be a typical camera, and more specifically, flash, used by a journalist around 1912? Would it be one of those bulbs with the reflector behind or one of those trays with the powder in that is ignited. A link to a typical camera would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Kevin.

[t.r.sanford]

Flashbulbs made their tentative appearance in the U.S. around 1930. Prior to that, people used flash powder -- there evidently were devices that used magnesium ribbon, too, but flash powder was favored by photojournalists. Neither flash powder, nor magnesium ribbon, nor "flash paper" (another alternative) involved an apparatus attached to the camera. You set the camera on a tripod, dumped the appropriate amount of powder into a metal tray that was attached to a short pole and fitted with something like a flintlock, held the tray over your head, opened the shutter and tripped the flintlock. This produced, among other things, a dense cloud of white smoke. If you didn't do it just right, it also scorched your hair and eyebrows. You can often tell when a photo was made with flash powder -- it's well-exposed, but everyone's eyes are closed. The glare caused them to shut their eyes before the light could register on the film.

[MikeS]

Does anyone here know if the flash powder that was used is still available? If not available as 'flash powder', is it similiar to black powder used in muzzle loading rifles/shotguns?

It would be kind of interesting and fun to try doing some flash photography using flash powder!


_________________
-Mike

[Top]

Last time I bought flash powder was in 1981, when I was techie/roadie for my house band in college. I bought it from the same A/V house we rented speakers, amps, and mixers from in Dedham, Ma.
Top

[t.r.sanford]

Flash powder was, so far as I know, in fact powdered magnesium, not a pyrotechnic mix. Among other things, you could use it to make thermite; so, in this suspicious age, I'd be kind of cautious about looking for a source of supply!

Also, one must recall that photographic uses of the stuff predate the advent of the Consumer Product Safety Commission by half a century or more. It might be fun to think of a warning label that might be affixed to a package of flash powder...

[RichS]

[t.r.sanford]

The "Focal Encyclopedia" explains that an older approach to using powdered magnesium as flash powder involved "a special flash lamp burning methylated spirit, the powder being blown into the flame by air pressure from a bulb." This was superseded, it continues, by the modern kind, which is powdered magnesium "mixed with chemicals [unspecified] to make it easier to burn.
"Commercial flash powders are supplied in double containers," it goes on. "One holds the magnesium powder, and the other, the igniting compound."

As I recall, the older generation of commercial photographers kept this stuff in use well after flashbulbs were perfected, because it was better for lighting up large interiors -- you used as much as you needed -- and the experienced practitioner could determine just how much to use for any situation, providing (if you like) a sort of "variable power" unattainable with bulbs.

You might check the supplier referenced above and see whether the material is still available. As long as the family picnic is held outdoors (during the hours of darkness), the combustion products of potassium chlorate ought not to be a nuisance. But I think it would be prudent to check local ordinances on fireworks!

[Les]

Just as photographers were never to settle on one film, one developer or even one paper, There were a number of flash powder formulas around. Also a number of proprietary powders existed. I have, for the lack of a better name, a flash cartridge. It's a short cylinder about the size of a quarter made of two halves of hollowed out wood dowel. (If you can remember sewing needles coming in a wood container, the these are a larger version of the cap) A fuse exists from one side. No clue what the contents are.

Now I haven't found any confirmation of this but in an article in the 50s B.F. "Doc" Skinner, a famous press photographer and self proclaimed inventer of the Speed Graphic, also claims that "all of the photographs taken at te 1910 Democratic Convention were shot with synchronized flash powder.

While I don't think they were sync'ing at any 1/125th of a second, I'd still like to know more about it. And it also means the other chemicals certainly did accelerate the burning.

If you do a search for "flash powder magic" you'll find lots of stuff available.

Les


[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2004-07-28 06:58 ]

[office888]

I got very interested in flashpowder when I started to do wet plate.

http://www.lungov.com/wagner/056c.html

That is a link for a guy who own's an old little Agfa flashlamp and produced his own powder...And what camera did he use to shoot photos with it?
*acts shocked*
A Graflex!

http://www.unitednuclear.com/strobe.htm

that webpage is the recipe for flashpowder that the guy used. I attempted to mix some myself, but never got ahold of a flashlamp. Still looking...



_________________
"Graflex cameras are like peanuts...you get one and you just can't stop." - Me

[Micah in NC]

Les,

Do you mean powder like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11739&item=5911258244&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

(It's eBay item # 5911258244.)

I just found magnesium ribbon, $7 a roll:
http://unitednuclear.com/chem.htm

--Micah in NC

[ This Message was edited by: Micah in NC on 2004-07-29 10:36 ]

[t.r.sanford]

The successful bidder on the flash powder may want an apparatus to fire it. One may be seen at

http://www.marriottworld.com/stock_pics/olderpics/flasholder.htm

...but watch out for your eyebrows!

[glennfromwy]

In 1910 - 1920, photo journalism was in it's infancy. Large metropolitan papers usually had a few pictures but small town papers usually didn't. Magazines had not yet reached the point where pictures were abundant. A great majority of the magazine pictures of the time were artist's drawings.

_________________
Glenn

"Wyoming - Where everybody is somebody else's weirdo"

[t.r.sanford]

The pace of change was slower in those days, and steel engraving, faced with the competition of photoengraving (perfected in 1886), hung on a lot longer than obsolescing graphics technologies do at present. My older relatives remembered seeing steel engravers at work for big-city publications. They sat on heavy metal platforms, suspended by springs from the ceiling to minimize the vibration of passing brewery wagons, elevated trains, and the like. Their right arms and hands were hypertrophied.

But those artists/engravers often worked from photographs, so there were photographers at work before the use of photoengravings became prevalent. Also, of course, WWI created a great demand for news, and spurred publications to adopt photomechanical reproduction. There were a lot more photos published in 1920 than there had been in 1910.