Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ncar!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!strong
From: strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Flashbulbs (was something stupid and illegal...)
Message-ID: <6744@fluke.COM>
Date: 26 Jan 89 17:43:34 GMT
References: <3835@midas.TEK.COM> <190700025@trsvax> <13355@cup.portal.com> <243@bnr-fos.UUCP> <13600@cup.portal.com> <6731@fluke.COM>
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In article <6731@fluke.COM> strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes:
}In article <13600@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
}}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).
}}
}Not quite Kemo sabe!  Incandescent lamp filaments are about 2% rhenium.  It's
}almost impossible to draw plain tungsten.
}-- 
}
}Norm   (strong@tc.fluke.com)

Besides which, rhenium is not one of the rare earth elements.


-- 

Norm   (strong@tc.fluke.com)