Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm
From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Flashbulbs (was something stupid and illegal...)
Message-ID: <13600@cup.portal.com>
Date: 16 Jan 89 07:17:47 GMT
References: <3835@midas.TEK.COM> <190700025@trsvax> <13355@cup.portal.com> <243@bnr-fos.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 16

Well, I should have done this in the first place:  check to see if my "fact"
was right.  A classic in the field, THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER'S HANDBOOK, was
not ten feet away.

Looking inside, I find, "They [flashbulbs] are filled with oxygen and a
metallic aluminum filament in the form of crumpled foil, ribbon or wire.
... They produce an intense white flash, the peak of which is about 3/100
of a second."
 
And later, "In 1965 GE offered the M3 [flashbulb] with a rhenium igniter."

As far as I know, the only rare earth which is common enough to be used in
significant quantities in consumer products is cerium, which composes nearly
half of the alloy used for liter flints (the other half is iron).

It's almost midnite, and I'm ready to be put to bed, as is this topic.