1 00:00:00,110 --> 00:00:04,750 It’s not much of a secret that photography used to be, uh, 2 00:00:04,961 --> 00:00:06,234 difficult. 3 00:00:06,234 --> 00:00:11,777 You didn’t just whip out the communication device you always have on you to take a snapshot, 4 00:00:11,860 --> 00:00:15,440 you needed to carry an actual camera around with you 5 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:17,144 like some kind of tourist. 6 00:00:17,144 --> 00:00:18,991 And it was also expensive! 7 00:00:18,991 --> 00:00:23,452 Every picture you took used up a frame of film which cost money to buy, 8 00:00:23,452 --> 00:00:26,774 and then there was the processing fees and the time - 9 00:00:26,774 --> 00:00:29,533 unless of course you had a Polaroid camera. 10 00:00:29,533 --> 00:00:31,829 But what’s perhaps less well-known 11 00:00:31,829 --> 00:00:33,687 (at least among the whippersnappers) 12 00:00:33,687 --> 00:00:41,778 is that there was a time when using flash photography added yet another cost to every photo you took. 13 00:00:41,778 --> 00:00:45,671 See, photographic film usually isn’t all that sensitive. 14 00:00:45,671 --> 00:00:49,199 It needs a lot of light to correctly capture an image, 15 00:00:49,199 --> 00:00:52,343 especially color films with fine grain. 16 00:00:52,343 --> 00:00:53,371 During the day, 17 00:00:53,371 --> 00:01:00,734 that miasma of incandescent plasma in the sky lights up the world plenty for a camera to make some memories, 18 00:01:00,734 --> 00:01:04,416 but at night, or even just indoors under artificial lighting, 19 00:01:04,416 --> 00:01:06,779 film cameras need some help. 20 00:01:06,779 --> 00:01:11,582 And a lot more than the little LED on your smartphone has to offer. 21 00:01:11,582 --> 00:01:17,378 Flash photography in the days of film involved equipping a camera with its own light source 22 00:01:17,378 --> 00:01:20,458 roughly as bright as the sun. 23 00:01:20,458 --> 00:01:23,170 That may sound pretty difficult, 24 00:01:23,170 --> 00:01:25,383 and it should because it was. 25 00:01:25,383 --> 00:01:27,986 The sun, not sure if you know this, 26 00:01:27,986 --> 00:01:36,102 is pretty stinking bright and replicating that amount of light in something you can carry around with you was quite challenging. 27 00:01:36,737 --> 00:01:37,955 But we did it. 28 00:01:37,955 --> 00:01:42,969 You’re probably familiar with electronic flash units that use flash tubes. 29 00:01:42,969 --> 00:01:46,866 These are still in common use today and they achieve sunlight-rivaling output 30 00:01:46,866 --> 00:01:52,553 by shoving a big electrical discharge through a quartz tube filled with xenon gas. 31 00:01:52,553 --> 00:01:56,993 Charge a big capacitor up with perhaps a dozen joules of stored energy 32 00:01:56,993 --> 00:02:01,126 and when you dump all that through the tube in a tiny fraction of a second, 33 00:02:01,126 --> 00:02:04,805 it will ionize the xenon producing an extremely bright flash. 34 00:02:04,805 --> 00:02:06,090 [shutter/film winding] 35 00:02:06,090 --> 00:02:12,800 The energy involved is fairly modest, but because the discharge happens over such a small fraction of a second, 36 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:18,927 the instantaneous power of one of these flash tubes is well into the megawatt territory. 37 00:02:18,927 --> 00:02:20,603 They’re bonkers. 38 00:02:20,603 --> 00:02:25,983 For many years, the technology which made this possible was quite exotic. 39 00:02:25,983 --> 00:02:33,719 Though invented in 1931 by Harold “Doc” Edgerton, flash tubes spent decades relegated to scientific research 40 00:02:33,719 --> 00:02:36,684 and other specialized applications. 41 00:02:36,684 --> 00:02:42,905 General photographic flash units using the technology did come to market around the mid 1950’s 42 00:02:42,905 --> 00:02:49,266 but they were just way too expensive for anyone but professional photographers to afford. 43 00:02:49,266 --> 00:02:55,896 Still, amateur photographers taking snapshots at birthdays and on vacations weren’t left in the dark: 44 00:02:55,896 --> 00:03:01,611 consumer flash photography was alive and well, no fancy technology required. 45 00:03:01,611 --> 00:03:02,916 How? 46 00:03:02,916 --> 00:03:04,514 With these! 47 00:03:04,514 --> 00:03:06,822 These are flashbulbs. 48 00:03:06,822 --> 00:03:15,480 They look kind of like an ordinary incandescent light bulb, except something went very wrong when making the filament. 49 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,863 You’d use these things with a flash unit like this. 50 00:03:19,039 --> 00:03:21,271 Stick a fresh bulb in its socket, 51 00:03:21,271 --> 00:03:23,931 pop the unit onto the hot shoe of a camera, 52 00:03:23,931 --> 00:03:26,470 engage its adorable little reflector, 53 00:03:26,470 --> 00:03:30,719 and then, when you took your next photo, the flash unit’s battery 54 00:03:30,719 --> 00:03:34,133 (once triggered by the camera through the contacts on the hot shoe) 55 00:03:34,133 --> 00:03:39,379 would send power to fire the flashbulb once the camera’s shutter was open. 56 00:03:39,379 --> 00:03:46,715 That would produce an extremely bright flash which would illuminate the camera's field-of-view to expose the film correctly. 57 00:03:46,715 --> 00:03:50,691 But that flash happens very quickly. 58 00:03:50,691 --> 00:03:55,020 To get a really good look at one of these, I’m gonna need some kind of a… 59 00:03:55,020 --> 00:03:56,683 slow mo guy. 60 00:03:57,742 --> 00:03:59,085 Luckily, 61 00:03:59,085 --> 00:04:00,410 I have one right here! 62 00:04:00,410 --> 00:04:01,082 Hello! 63 00:04:01,082 --> 00:04:02,286 Hi Gav, how ya doin? 64 00:04:02,286 --> 00:04:06,001 Good, thanks, Alec! [laughs] -Thank you very much for having me here in Austin! 65 00:04:06,001 --> 00:04:08,454 Yeah, thanks for coming to my big, empty room. 66 00:04:08,454 --> 00:04:15,454 I am using Gav’s expertise in slow-mo filming (and also equipment) because I want to film some old-school flashbulbs. 67 00:04:15,454 --> 00:04:18,955 Do you know how these work -Not really. 68 00:04:18,955 --> 00:04:26,357 So, this is basically a light bulb but what it’s filled with is metal shavings of zirconium 69 00:04:26,357 --> 00:04:27,357 and oxygen. 70 00:04:27,639 --> 00:04:32,180 So this is a pure oxygen envelope, and when you send some electric current through there 71 00:04:32,180 --> 00:04:36,310 it’s going to cause the zirconium to burn extremely fast. 72 00:04:36,310 --> 00:04:37,830 So, a single-use bulb. 73 00:04:37,830 --> 00:04:42,334 It’s a single use bulb, it’s going to make an extremely bright flash, 74 00:04:42,334 --> 00:04:44,401 and then you gotta get rid of it. 75 00:04:44,401 --> 00:04:47,801 But what I’m even more excited to see is this. 76 00:04:47,801 --> 00:04:49,637 This is a flashcube, 77 00:04:49,637 --> 00:04:51,746 technically this is magic cube 78 00:04:51,746 --> 00:04:55,601 or Magicube ‘cause it uses once C, that’s not important. 79 00:04:55,883 --> 00:04:59,866 And these are mechanically actuated by the camera. 80 00:04:59,866 --> 00:05:04,121 So rather than need to have a battery to send power through here to set it off, 81 00:05:04,121 --> 00:05:06,459 these actually have some sort of a firing pin 82 00:05:06,459 --> 00:05:11,161 to create a discharge at the base of the bulb to set it off 83 00:05:11,161 --> 00:05:13,823 and I’m really excited to see what that looks like. 84 00:05:13,823 --> 00:05:16,390 Me, too. I’ve never even heard of that. 85 00:05:16,390 --> 00:05:18,169 They’re pretty cool. 86 00:05:18,169 --> 00:05:20,244 So, we’re gonna see what we can do. 87 00:05:20,244 --> 00:05:25,340 Uh, it’s gonna be pretty challenging to film this uh, what do you think we’re gonna have to do here? 88 00:05:25,340 --> 00:05:28,283 I think, well I like to start around 1,000 frames a second 89 00:05:28,283 --> 00:05:31,750 and then learn that that’s probably not fast enough and then maybe switch cameras. 90 00:05:31,750 --> 00:05:36,308 We’ve got a ton of options with frame rate today so I think we’ll just learn as we go. 91 00:05:36,308 --> 00:05:39,666 I think that’s probably the best option and the only good thing is 92 00:05:39,666 --> 00:05:47,645 these are not as instantaneously bright as an electronic flash because they do burn over some fraction of a second 93 00:05:47,645 --> 00:05:51,704 so overall it’s the same amount of light but spread over more time. 94 00:05:51,704 --> 00:05:54,905 So hopefully, it’s not too crazy. 95 00:05:54,905 --> 00:05:56,492 But let’s find out! 96 00:05:56,492 --> 00:05:57,487 Let’s find out. 97 00:05:57,487 --> 00:06:01,188 We have Gav’s goofy probe lens thing… 98 00:06:01,188 --> 00:06:05,572 -There is nothing goofy about this, that’s a normal looking lens alright? 99 00:06:05,572 --> 00:06:09,325 -no it’s not, but we are uh… we literally, 100 00:06:09,325 --> 00:06:12,984 I have no idea what to expect here because I would like to see the filament 101 00:06:12,984 --> 00:06:17,377 but I know it’s probably gonna wipe out - or blow out the exposure, but we’ll see. 102 00:06:17,377 --> 00:06:21,218 [Gav] I can preemptively stop the lens down a little. 103 00:06:21,218 --> 00:06:24,557 [Alec] Yeah that might be… we’ll find out. 104 00:06:24,557 --> 00:06:27,381 But again, you don’t know the other thing about the coating? 105 00:06:27,381 --> 00:06:28,445 -Ah. 106 00:06:28,445 --> 00:06:31,082 -Uh, the coating is there for two reasons. 107 00:06:31,082 --> 00:06:33,769 One, to shift the white balance. 108 00:06:33,769 --> 00:06:38,932 It’s adding some blue so that way it is the correct white for daylight-balanced film. 109 00:06:38,932 --> 00:06:42,740 But the coating is also there for, uh, let’s call it structural reasons. 110 00:06:42,740 --> 00:06:43,957 [Gav] Oh. 111 00:06:43,957 --> 00:06:50,513 I love that it’s basically a sealed chemical reaction with a built-in gel. 112 00:06:50,513 --> 00:06:53,645 Like, it’s like they've thought of every single aspect of this. 113 00:06:53,645 --> 00:06:55,687 [Alec] I don’t think they thought of it [laughs] 114 00:06:55,687 --> 00:07:00,107 I think they realized there are some, uh, collateral issues. -OK. 115 00:07:00,107 --> 00:07:02,753 Do I need, like, eye protection? -No, you don’t need eye protection. 116 00:07:04,553 --> 00:07:06,493 Maybe for the bigger ones… 117 00:07:06,493 --> 00:07:08,594 Hopefully this works. 118 00:07:08,594 --> 00:07:12,000 In 3… 2… 1. 119 00:07:12,925 --> 00:07:13,534 [Gav] Ooh. 120 00:07:15,750 --> 00:07:16,250 Wow. 121 00:07:17,682 --> 00:07:21,590 [Alec] There’s actually, I can see it in the light there was some smoke coming from it. 122 00:07:21,590 --> 00:07:24,840 [Gav] So… was that leaking out of the bulb? Or is that coming from the… 123 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:26,381 -Yeah, you see... you see how it’s bulged on the side? 124 00:07:26,381 --> 00:07:27,390 The glass is cracked. 125 00:07:27,390 --> 00:07:28,521 -Oh wow! 126 00:07:28,980 --> 00:07:29,768 So it’s that hot? 127 00:07:29,768 --> 00:07:30,768 -It’s that hot! 128 00:07:30,980 --> 00:07:32,678 They pretty much explode. 129 00:07:33,772 --> 00:07:35,599 Oh wow! 130 00:07:35,599 --> 00:07:38,660 That is bright! 131 00:07:38,660 --> 00:07:41,669 Yeah that’s kind of uh, oh that’s cool. 132 00:07:42,357 --> 00:07:45,604 OK so to see detail in there then we need to be… 133 00:07:46,172 --> 00:07:47,919 [Alec] Way stopped down. 134 00:07:48,816 --> 00:07:50,150 [Gav] How many of these have we got? 135 00:07:50,150 --> 00:07:51,150 -Plenty! 136 00:07:51,150 --> 00:07:52,150 -Wanna just do it again? 137 00:07:52,150 --> 00:07:53,606 -Let’s just do it again. 138 00:07:53,606 --> 00:07:56,476 3… 2… 1… go. 139 00:07:58,360 --> 00:07:59,360 You can see the smoke? 140 00:07:59,599 --> 00:08:00,360 -Yeah. 141 00:08:00,689 --> 00:08:03,880 So is it bulging front to back or from… 142 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:10,650 -It’s, wherever the glass cracks the coating keeps it from exploding. 143 00:08:12,234 --> 00:08:14,034 [Gav] Okay, let’s have a look at that. 144 00:08:15,679 --> 00:08:17,546 Pfft! 145 00:08:19,191 --> 00:08:21,186 [Alec] This is gonna be the real challenge with the flashcubes 146 00:08:21,186 --> 00:08:22,952 ‘cause I don’t know how bright the detonation is. 147 00:08:23,370 --> 00:08:24,791 Alright, here we go again. 148 00:08:24,791 --> 00:08:26,690 3… 2… 1… 149 00:08:29,082 --> 00:08:30,583 You could hear it crack. 150 00:08:30,583 --> 00:08:32,623 [Gav][ Yeah that was nice, it was like a... 151 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:35,178 bit of an ASMR crackle there. 152 00:08:35,926 --> 00:08:37,311 [Alec] Oh that’s close. 153 00:08:37,311 --> 00:08:38,470 -Oh we’re getting close, there. 154 00:08:43,792 --> 00:08:46,034 - In 3, 2, 1 155 00:08:48,505 --> 00:08:50,402 [Gav] Ooh, very smoky, that one. 156 00:08:51,658 --> 00:08:54,650 [Alec] Oh you can see a crack in the glass. 157 00:08:54,650 --> 00:08:56,310 [Gav] Oh, yeah. 158 00:08:56,310 --> 00:08:57,478 Ooohh! 159 00:08:58,255 --> 00:09:00,372 Yeah a nice backlit crack. 160 00:09:00,372 --> 00:09:03,511 You can see it like, sooting up and then the crack happens. 161 00:09:03,511 --> 00:09:04,505 Chh! 162 00:09:05,910 --> 00:09:07,050 -This is great! 163 00:09:07,050 --> 00:09:09,228 -At 1,000 frames a second the crack, 164 00:09:09,228 --> 00:09:11,320 it just looks the same as if you're filing at normal speed. 165 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,482 Like, glass cracks so fast that it’s gonna happen in one frame. [Alec] Yeah, yeah. 166 00:09:14,482 --> 00:09:19,400 Your, uh, the video where you did the sheet that you painted the rainbow colors - 167 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:21,151 that was really cool. 168 00:09:21,151 --> 00:09:24,924 Having gathered plenty of footage with the AG-1 flashbulbs, 169 00:09:24,924 --> 00:09:28,209 it was time to take a look at the flashcubes. 170 00:09:28,209 --> 00:09:34,380 These things were initially introduced to make flash photography easier and more approachable. 171 00:09:34,380 --> 00:09:39,683 Individual flashbulbs are fiddly to deal with, become extremely hot once used, 172 00:09:39,683 --> 00:09:45,709 and even if your camera is fancy enough to support flash photography (which wasn’t always a given) 173 00:09:45,709 --> 00:09:51,438 it still required a second device to use: the flash unit itself. 174 00:09:51,438 --> 00:10:00,523 Now, it wasn’t all terrible - flash units like this often incorporated some sort of eject mechanism to help you deal with the hot, spent bulb, 175 00:10:00,523 --> 00:10:05,232 but you’d still need to carry this and a box of bulbs around with you 176 00:10:05,232 --> 00:10:09,334 in addition to your camera - plus do a little dance between every photo - 177 00:10:09,334 --> 00:10:12,404 just to take pictures indoors or at night. 178 00:10:12,404 --> 00:10:17,825 Oh, and also make sure you have the right battery in your flash unit and that it’s not dead. 179 00:10:18,301 --> 00:10:20,248 It was an ordeal. 180 00:10:20,248 --> 00:10:28,854 In contrast, the flashcube neatly integrated four flashbulbs and accompanying reflectors into a simple-to-use, disposable… 181 00:10:28,854 --> 00:10:30,156 cube. 182 00:10:30,156 --> 00:10:35,205 Simply plop one onto the receptacle of a compatible camera and you could take flash photos, 183 00:10:35,205 --> 00:10:37,672 no extra equipment required. 184 00:10:37,672 --> 00:10:43,080 Cameras which used them would even rotate the cube automatically when you wound the film to the next frame. 185 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:46,990 And since the bulbs were found behind a polycarbonate shield, 186 00:10:46,990 --> 00:10:51,660 not only did that help contain a ruptured bulb should that happen during the flash, 187 00:10:51,660 --> 00:10:57,824 but you never had to worry about burning your fingers or setting a trashcan on fire after you took a picture. 188 00:10:57,824 --> 00:11:06,610 The first flashcubes were introduced by Syvlania and Kodak in 1965, but those weren’t really that interesting. 189 00:11:06,610 --> 00:11:09,570 They looked almost identical to this later version, 190 00:11:09,570 --> 00:11:14,807 but they were essentially just four ordinary flashbulbs packaged in a clever way. 191 00:11:14,807 --> 00:11:17,825 The bulbs were still electrically fired, 192 00:11:17,825 --> 00:11:23,007 so cameras which used the first iteration of flashcubes still needed a power source 193 00:11:23,007 --> 00:11:27,356 and a shutter-synchronization circuit to actually set them off. 194 00:11:27,356 --> 00:11:29,760 And that wasn’t always reliable. 195 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:34,655 If the battery inside the camera was weak the flash may not fire, 196 00:11:34,655 --> 00:11:36,681 and according to Richard B. Martenson, 197 00:11:36,681 --> 00:11:40,682 Vice President of Consumer Sales for Sylvania Lighting Products, 198 00:11:40,682 --> 00:11:46,714 that resulted in over 100 million flash pictures being ruined each year. 199 00:11:46,714 --> 00:11:48,200 Tragic! 200 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:52,917 So, to fix this problem Sylvania, once again in partnership with Kodak, 201 00:11:52,917 --> 00:11:57,472 developed the Magicube and released it in 1970. 202 00:11:57,472 --> 00:12:03,534 I’m not entirely convinced increasing reliability was the motivation here but we’ll get back to that. 203 00:12:03,534 --> 00:12:09,308 The actual flashbulbs inside of here may not look very different compared to the AG-1 bulbs, 204 00:12:09,308 --> 00:12:15,483 but as I was telling Gav these are set off mechanically and not electrically. 205 00:12:15,483 --> 00:12:19,577 After very carefully removing one from an unused flashcube, 206 00:12:19,577 --> 00:12:26,212 we can see that a small metal tube is protruding from the base of the glass envelope rather than a couple of wires. 207 00:12:26,451 --> 00:12:31,364 That tube is filled with a chemical compound known as a fulminate. 208 00:12:31,364 --> 00:12:36,656 What makes fulminates useful for photography is that they’re explosive. 209 00:12:36,656 --> 00:12:37,529 Yeah! 210 00:12:38,396 --> 00:12:46,450 Yeah, this little metal tube is filled with the same sort of chemical that goes into percussion caps to ignite gunpowder in firearms. 211 00:12:47,437 --> 00:12:52,079 I tried to figure out what specific fulminate might be in here and didn’t have too much luck, 212 00:12:52,079 --> 00:12:53,530 but that’s not really important. 213 00:12:53,530 --> 00:12:58,626 What’s important is that when you strike this tube very quickly with... something, 214 00:12:58,626 --> 00:13:01,365 its contents will explode. 215 00:13:01,365 --> 00:13:06,561 Remember, we used these so we could take pictures at night. 216 00:13:06,561 --> 00:13:09,661 Now, much like a percussion cap, 217 00:13:09,661 --> 00:13:13,698 that explosion is used to initiate a second combustion event, 218 00:13:13,698 --> 00:13:17,637 though instead of gunpowder accelerating a projectile forward out the barrel of a gun, 219 00:13:17,637 --> 00:13:22,632 it’s zirconium shavings in an oxygen atmosphere to produce a lot of light all quick-like. 220 00:13:22,632 --> 00:13:29,572 Inside the flashcube, tucked neatly behind the reflectors, are four pieces of wire which form simple springs. 221 00:13:29,572 --> 00:13:35,911 At the base of the unit you’ll see that one end of each spring is being retained by a little metal nubbin. 222 00:13:35,911 --> 00:13:39,839 Those ends of the spring are visible and accessible from below, 223 00:13:39,839 --> 00:13:43,884 and if I push up on one to allow it past the retaining nubbin, 224 00:13:43,884 --> 00:13:51,134 the tension is released and it almost instantaneously flies at the primer tube and gives it a good whack. 225 00:13:51,134 --> 00:13:54,859 That impact causes the friction-sensitive fulminate to ignite 226 00:13:54,859 --> 00:13:58,822 which in turn sets fire to the zirconium shavings and in an instant 227 00:13:58,822 --> 00:14:02,010 you’ve got yourself a very bright flash of light. 228 00:14:02,010 --> 00:14:07,980 This Kodak Instamatic X-15 is a simple camera which works with Magicubes. 229 00:14:07,980 --> 00:14:11,254 Simple is pretty much the name of its game: 230 00:14:11,254 --> 00:14:19,600 this is a purely mechanical, plastic camera with no automatic light metering or indeed exposure adjustment of any kind. 231 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:28,130 Every image this takes is captured through its fixed-focus lens with an aperture of f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/90th of a second. 232 00:14:28,130 --> 00:14:32,034 Thanks to the generous exposure latitude of color print film 233 00:14:32,034 --> 00:14:37,329 that was certifiably Good Enough™ for outdoor photography in most conditions 234 00:14:37,329 --> 00:14:42,250 but once the sun sets or you head inside, it’ll need some help. 235 00:14:42,250 --> 00:14:45,484 So, just plop on a Magicube, 236 00:14:45,484 --> 00:14:48,618 and say cheese! [click] 237 00:14:49,425 --> 00:14:51,641 How does the camera set if off? 238 00:14:51,641 --> 00:14:55,090 Well, if you look closely as you attach the flashcube, 239 00:14:55,090 --> 00:15:00,399 you’ll notice a small pokey bit coming up from just next to the socket. 240 00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:06,907 As you may have guessed, this is what fires the flashcube by pushing up on the spring to release it from its catch 241 00:15:06,907 --> 00:15:09,176 and allow it to strike the primer tube. 242 00:15:09,176 --> 00:15:14,709 But the actuator also serves as a check for whether the flashcube will work. 243 00:15:14,709 --> 00:15:20,334 Prior to taking a picture, the actuator is lifted into place with very light pressure. 244 00:15:20,334 --> 00:15:25,921 With a fresh flashcube, the trip wire will prevent that actuator from moving very far up. 245 00:15:25,921 --> 00:15:32,251 But, if you are re-using a flashcube and insert it with a spent lamp facing forward, 246 00:15:32,251 --> 00:15:35,549 the actuator will make its way past the position of the spring 247 00:15:35,549 --> 00:15:40,321 and a little red flag indicator is lowered into the viewfinder to warn you. 248 00:15:40,321 --> 00:15:41,730 Pretty clever. 249 00:15:41,730 --> 00:15:45,743 But, assuming the spring is still there for the actuator to… 250 00:15:45,743 --> 00:15:50,529 actuate, the red flag does not appear and you’re ready to take a picture. 251 00:15:50,529 --> 00:15:52,356 When you press down on the shutter button, 252 00:15:52,356 --> 00:15:55,851 the camera forces that actuator into the base of the flashcube, 253 00:15:55,851 --> 00:16:02,560 pushing the spring above its catch, and letting it fly into the primer tube to set off the explosive fulminate. 254 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:07,740 The initiation is very fast - just four milliseconds after the shutter has opened, 255 00:16:07,740 --> 00:16:10,029 the flashcube begins producing light. 256 00:16:10,029 --> 00:16:13,770 And its output peaks just 7 milliseconds later. 257 00:16:13,770 --> 00:16:19,427 With a flashcube installed, the camera does slow its shutter speed to 1/45 of a second, 258 00:16:19,427 --> 00:16:26,431 and that's just about the perfect speed for gathering as much of the flashcube’s light onto the film as possible. 259 00:16:26,431 --> 00:16:28,320 And, for the icing on the cake, 260 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,775 when you advance the film frame using the winder on the back of the camera, 261 00:16:34,078 --> 00:16:40,060 the flashcube automagically rotates 90 degrees so your next shot is ready as soon as possible. 262 00:16:40,060 --> 00:16:47,297 There’s some delightful mechanical goodness in the actuator getting pulled down as the cube begins begins to turn. 263 00:16:47,297 --> 00:16:49,465 Mmm, clearance! 264 00:16:49,465 --> 00:16:51,981 If you’re wondering how much these things cost, 265 00:16:51,981 --> 00:16:57,614 well a package just like this originally retailed for $2.25. 266 00:16:57,614 --> 00:17:02,428 Adjust for today's money, and that’s nearly eighteen dollars! 267 00:17:02,428 --> 00:17:06,553 And since this is 3 cubes slash 12 flashes, 268 00:17:06,553 --> 00:17:14,184 that means each flash photo you took cost basically $1.50 on top of the cost of the film itself. 269 00:17:14,184 --> 00:17:21,478 In 1975, a 20 exposure roll of film for this camera (plus prints) cost about $5 270 00:17:21,478 --> 00:17:28,518 and adjusted for inflation that’s not quite $30 which, well, works out again to about $1.50 per photograph 271 00:17:28,518 --> 00:17:35,328 so using the flash back in the day just about doubled the cost of taking a single picture. 272 00:17:35,328 --> 00:17:40,126 Unless of course you were shooting slide film - that used to be cheaper, ya know! 273 00:17:40,126 --> 00:17:44,577 Now you practically gotta get a mortgage to shoot a single roll of Ektachrome. 274 00:17:44,577 --> 00:17:51,851 While Sylvania and Kodak claimed that they developed the Magicube for more reliable flash photography, 275 00:17:51,851 --> 00:17:55,477 to be honest that doesn’t smell all that truthful to me. 276 00:17:55,477 --> 00:17:58,647 Kodak, although they’d happily sell you a camera, 277 00:17:58,647 --> 00:18:00,588 really wanted to sell you film 278 00:18:00,588 --> 00:18:02,401 and processing for that film 279 00:18:02,401 --> 00:18:05,828 and prints of those pictures on that processed film. 280 00:18:05,828 --> 00:18:11,858 Their cameras were the gateway drug to get you hooked on taking snapshots with their film products, 281 00:18:11,858 --> 00:18:17,476 and wouldn’t it be great if they could make their cheap, entry-level, flash-capable cameras even cheaper 282 00:18:17,476 --> 00:18:20,618 by removing the battery and wiring and junk? 283 00:18:20,618 --> 00:18:26,534 I’m pretty sure that was the real goal of adding explosives to the photography process. 284 00:18:26,534 --> 00:18:32,127 After all, the packaging on these GE flashbulbs is pretty darn confident that they’re all gonna work, 285 00:18:32,127 --> 00:18:35,884 and they’ll even send you four new ones if you send them a dud. 286 00:18:35,884 --> 00:18:40,180 Still, while it definitely seems pretty off-the-wall in hindsight, 287 00:18:40,180 --> 00:18:43,726 the concept did work and worked very well. 288 00:18:43,726 --> 00:18:49,112 And if we still needed to rely on single-use flashbulbs for cheap flash photos anyway, 289 00:18:49,112 --> 00:18:53,761 I suppose adding a little explosion to the mix wasn’t the most ridiculous idea. 290 00:18:54,478 --> 00:18:57,446 But I think that’s enough exposition, don’t you? 291 00:18:57,446 --> 00:19:00,442 The absolutely bonkers way by which these are ignited 292 00:19:00,442 --> 00:19:05,166 is the entire reason I traveled to Austin and enlisted the help of a Slow-Mo Guy. 293 00:19:05,166 --> 00:19:08,079 I really want to see what this looks like in slow motion, 294 00:19:08,079 --> 00:19:10,014 so let’s cut to the chase. 295 00:19:10,014 --> 00:19:17,391 So we're about to shoot the first flashcube and I do not remember which one I poke to make that one go off. 296 00:19:17,391 --> 00:19:22,360 So we have a 50/50 chance that this is gonna work. Um… 297 00:19:23,197 --> 00:19:25,860 [Gav] At least you've narrowed it down 50/50 though and not one in four. 298 00:19:25,860 --> 00:19:30,894 -Yeah I mean I really cannot tell from the mechanism which way the spring goes. 299 00:19:31,761 --> 00:19:33,261 I… 300 00:19:33,470 --> 00:19:36,409 I think it's this one but I could be wrong. 301 00:19:38,054 --> 00:19:39,561 We'll find out in a moment you ready? 302 00:19:39,561 --> 00:19:40,561 -Ready. 303 00:19:40,561 --> 00:19:43,337 three two one [crack] 304 00:19:43,845 --> 00:19:46,384 -You nailed it. That was the right one! -Hey I got it right the right 305 00:19:46,384 --> 00:19:47,774 [laughter] 306 00:19:48,791 --> 00:19:49,738 Okay. 307 00:19:52,310 --> 00:19:54,235 Woah. [laughter] 308 00:19:54,833 --> 00:19:57,517 I think we're going to need the faster camera! -Yeah! 309 00:19:59,790 --> 00:20:03,277 What - you can't even tell at all what initiated that. 310 00:20:03,277 --> 00:20:05,440 It just looks like it exploded. 311 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:06,925 [Gav] Go frame by frame… 312 00:20:09,826 --> 00:20:12,230 [Alec] Well, that's very bright. 313 00:20:12,230 --> 00:20:14,938 But yeah we need the… we definitely need the bigger guns. 314 00:20:16,941 --> 00:20:18,475 [Gav] Bigger gun time? 315 00:20:18,475 --> 00:20:21,090 -I think so! -All right let's do it. 316 00:20:21,090 --> 00:20:25,340 Okay we've whipped out the big guns cuz that didn't reveal anything so what is our frame rate? 317 00:20:25,340 --> 00:20:26,640 [Gav] 200,000. 318 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,579 - 200,000 frames per second! Okay... 319 00:20:29,579 --> 00:20:31,669 - It's quite the leap. - Yeah! 320 00:20:31,669 --> 00:20:35,084 Um... let's see what happens! 321 00:20:35,084 --> 00:20:36,383 Here we go, 322 00:20:36,383 --> 00:20:38,562 I got it three two one 323 00:20:39,100 --> 00:20:40,847 bl-sfh, or again, 324 00:20:40,847 --> 00:20:42,512 three two one 325 00:20:42,512 --> 00:20:43,275 [crack] 326 00:20:43,275 --> 00:20:46,053 The footage we got here was spectacular. 327 00:20:46,053 --> 00:20:50,581 A plume of sparks shot out from the base of the bulb and ignited the zirconium, 328 00:20:50,581 --> 00:20:53,681 with the filings burning like brilliant fuses. 329 00:20:53,681 --> 00:20:57,785 One spark even managed to make it beyond the midpoint of the tube, 330 00:20:57,785 --> 00:21:05,632 and we can see that the exact spot where it collided with the zirconium is where the zirconium itself began to burn. 331 00:21:06,021 --> 00:21:07,838 This is basically a firework. 332 00:21:07,838 --> 00:21:08,685 [Gav] Yeah! 333 00:21:08,685 --> 00:21:13,586 -It is a very calibrated, easy to set off firework. 334 00:21:14,214 --> 00:21:16,382 For the purposes of photography. 335 00:21:19,133 --> 00:21:21,310 It’s propagating so slowly! 336 00:21:21,310 --> 00:21:24,186 [Gav] Yeah, I mean, it’s just that first bit that’s fast. 337 00:21:24,186 --> 00:21:26,092 I can’t believe how bright it is. 338 00:21:26,092 --> 00:21:30,754 Even at a one microsecond per frame exposure. 339 00:21:30,754 --> 00:21:37,541 This is - at your playback frame rate this is slowing one second down to 111 minutes. 340 00:21:37,541 --> 00:21:42,669 [astonished laughter] A feature-length film out of one second! 341 00:21:44,792 --> 00:21:47,031 Oh these cameras are amazing. 342 00:21:47,031 --> 00:21:51,030 While we got plenty of detail of the initiation explosion, 343 00:21:51,030 --> 00:21:54,618 the zirconium burn was still blowing out the sensor. 344 00:21:54,618 --> 00:22:00,075 And remember each frame was captured over a tiny, tiny fraction of a second! 345 00:22:00,075 --> 00:22:02,605 These things are ridiculously bright. 346 00:22:02,605 --> 00:22:09,486 Gav decreased the shutter angle in the hopes of uncovering some more interesting details as the flash reached full-brightness. 347 00:22:09,486 --> 00:22:12,817 3, 2, 1 [click] 348 00:22:12,817 --> 00:22:15,766 …so one of those Sparks runs into the zirconium. 349 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,909 Now the tails are burning. 350 00:22:20,746 --> 00:22:26,002 [Gav] So are we actually seeing the travel across each each, like, hair of it? 351 00:22:26,002 --> 00:22:29,405 - I think so. I don't know what what else that could be. 352 00:22:29,405 --> 00:22:32,971 It's like … it's like a bird's nest that you set on fire. 353 00:22:33,539 --> 00:22:38,520 [Gav] Yeah. So a crazy moment in time where one half of the flash has gone off. 354 00:22:39,626 --> 00:22:43,375 -See it's pulling the wire closer… it probably shrinks a little bit. 355 00:22:43,375 --> 00:22:45,264 -Lots of contractions and… 356 00:22:47,028 --> 00:22:48,886 yeah a lot of thermal action in there. 357 00:22:55,401 --> 00:22:59,147 [Gav] See that there, that's just like globs of molten metal there. 358 00:23:00,672 --> 00:23:02,743 See that… see that one explode? 359 00:23:07,108 --> 00:23:08,466 [Alec] Oh wow! 360 00:23:08,466 --> 00:23:09,968 -It was like a bubble. 361 00:23:11,074 --> 00:23:12,253 -What‽ 362 00:23:12,253 --> 00:23:14,341 [laughter] 363 00:23:14,341 --> 00:23:15,861 [Gav] I wonder if there's air trapped in little 364 00:23:15,861 --> 00:23:20,597 -little bubbles of zirconium? - bubbles of molten zir - they're - they're all exploding! 365 00:23:20,597 --> 00:23:22,366 - That is amazing. 366 00:23:22,366 --> 00:23:24,086 - You can see why I wanted to switch to this camera right? 367 00:23:24,086 --> 00:23:28,614 Because there's, there's always like a deeper level that you just start seeing even crazier stuff. 368 00:23:29,601 --> 00:23:31,768 Yeah all of these bubbles popped. 369 00:23:32,994 --> 00:23:34,665 [Alec] So I wonder why they're forming… 370 00:23:34,665 --> 00:23:40,712 Maybe oh, well I - okay so maybe as the wire is burning the center of it melts 371 00:23:40,712 --> 00:23:45,289 and it lets in some of the oxygen or whatever else might be in there. 372 00:23:45,289 --> 00:23:48,786 [Gav] And we saw the the wire contracting towards the middle 373 00:23:48,786 --> 00:23:51,955 so I assume as it's burning and melting it's like pulling more liquid in 374 00:23:51,955 --> 00:23:54,516 and just making these… 375 00:23:54,516 --> 00:23:57,126 It’s pulling more wire in and making orbs of glob. 376 00:23:57,126 --> 00:24:00,259 OK, so obviously that was pretty cool. 377 00:24:00,259 --> 00:24:03,724 Lots of interesting stuff was uncovered in the high speed footage. 378 00:24:03,724 --> 00:24:06,825 But we also uncovered something else. 379 00:24:06,825 --> 00:24:14,330 I had presumed that the electrically-triggered ones just had a couple of electrodes sticking into the chaos of the zirconium foil. 380 00:24:14,330 --> 00:24:17,940 Run some power through there and whatever bits of zirconium are touching those electrodes 381 00:24:17,940 --> 00:24:20,000 will complete a circuit to the other side, 382 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:25,491 it’ll got hot, and since it’s a pure oxygen atmosphere that’s gonna make it get all burny real fast. 383 00:24:25,491 --> 00:24:30,084 But in the 1,000 frames per second footage capture from the 4K camera, 384 00:24:30,084 --> 00:24:32,809 we were able to see… something. 385 00:24:33,646 --> 00:24:35,880 [Gav] Was there like… 386 00:24:37,285 --> 00:24:39,513 do we actually see an arc? 387 00:24:39,513 --> 00:24:42,424 - Oh that's probably - that's a filament! 388 00:24:42,424 --> 00:24:44,293 So it actually is burning… 389 00:24:44,293 --> 00:24:46,013 [Gav] So there's a filament in there just like a… 390 00:24:46,013 --> 00:24:48,128 -Probably yeah just, just a little filament. 391 00:24:49,354 --> 00:24:52,118 And then it basically causes an explosion. 392 00:24:52,118 --> 00:24:55,179 [Gav] That's one frame later, so that's only like 393 00:24:55,179 --> 00:24:57,089 a thousandth of a second later. 394 00:24:57,089 --> 00:24:59,706 -Wow so there is… I didn't think this would be that fast. 395 00:25:01,022 --> 00:25:02,782 That is amazing. 396 00:25:02,782 --> 00:25:04,621 At this point I was thinking, 397 00:25:04,621 --> 00:25:08,633 alright I guess it makes sense for there to be an incandescent filament in there. 398 00:25:08,633 --> 00:25:13,032 That would give the lamp predictable electrical characteristics if nothing else, 399 00:25:13,032 --> 00:25:23,845 and a bit of tungsten wire that will definitely get hot when you pass current through it is probably more reliable than just poking electrodes into a briar patch of filings. 400 00:25:23,845 --> 00:25:28,872 But switching to the faster camera revealed there was more to it than that. 401 00:25:29,201 --> 00:25:31,641 3… 2… 1… 402 00:25:32,329 --> 00:25:33,455 Oh. 403 00:25:35,130 --> 00:25:37,280 Does the filament, like, vaporize? 404 00:25:38,805 --> 00:25:40,713 What's happening at the beginning? 405 00:25:43,105 --> 00:25:46,835 Well now I'm totally unclear on what's happening at the beginning. 406 00:25:46,835 --> 00:25:51,450 Maybe the… maybe the filament is like a kind of detonation cord. 407 00:25:54,500 --> 00:25:59,007 [Gav] Oh that's cool you can see the little streaks of smoke. 408 00:25:59,007 --> 00:26:00,170 Psh-owrn! 409 00:26:01,635 --> 00:26:03,887 [Alec] Oh there's one of the globbles. 410 00:26:04,156 --> 00:26:06,339 So they seem to happen at the end. 411 00:26:07,057 --> 00:26:10,085 So I wonder if that's because the oxygen's getting used up 412 00:26:11,102 --> 00:26:19,489 and it's just a bubble of, like, oxides that's not actually burning. 413 00:26:19,489 --> 00:26:23,879 I'm looking at this to see if I can even see what's going on with that filament. 414 00:26:25,075 --> 00:26:28,541 The… the electrodes are definitely like poking up. 415 00:26:28,541 --> 00:26:33,210 My gut is that the filament is... 416 00:26:33,210 --> 00:26:38,173 I don't know, maybe it's a piece of tungsten that's coated with an explosive compound? 417 00:26:38,173 --> 00:26:42,591 ‘Cause it looks like it's vaporizing. It doesn't just look like it's turning on. 418 00:26:42,591 --> 00:26:46,506 [Gav] Is there a way to get the glass off? 419 00:26:46,506 --> 00:26:48,543 -Not without just breaking it. 420 00:26:48,543 --> 00:26:52,537 -But would it be interesting just to break the bulb and film into the hole? 421 00:26:53,942 --> 00:26:57,001 Just to get the the primer going off? 422 00:26:57,001 --> 00:27:00,468 [Alec] We can try it, you got some safety glasses and a hammer? 423 00:27:00,468 --> 00:27:03,568 Okay in the interest of science… 424 00:27:03,568 --> 00:27:06,653 I really don't know what on Earth is going on with the filament. 425 00:27:06,653 --> 00:27:11,230 I thought it was just a tungsten filament but based on that high speed it kind of looked like it exploded. 426 00:27:11,649 --> 00:27:14,113 So, um, I have hammer. 427 00:27:14,860 --> 00:27:16,787 And safety glasses! 428 00:27:17,236 --> 00:27:19,697 [Gav] I think you need to duck further into it. 429 00:27:19,697 --> 00:27:20,551 Am I visible? 430 00:27:20,551 --> 00:27:21,294 No, it’s - more. 431 00:27:22,012 --> 00:27:23,732 There you go! [laughter] 432 00:27:24,330 --> 00:27:26,813 I'm wearing safety glasses, okay? 433 00:27:27,321 --> 00:27:29,362 And Gav's way back there, so. 434 00:27:29,362 --> 00:27:32,811 Actually because of the coating it's probably not… this might be difficult! 435 00:27:32,811 --> 00:27:33,364 -Yeah. 436 00:27:33,633 --> 00:27:34,666 -We’ll see… 437 00:27:35,652 --> 00:27:36,295 [BANG] 438 00:27:37,491 --> 00:27:39,494 Okay that was under pressure! 439 00:27:40,301 --> 00:27:42,219 That was definitely under pressure. 440 00:27:42,369 --> 00:27:46,348 [Gav] I heard glass hit the the ground about 20 feet away. 441 00:27:50,773 --> 00:27:52,643 Great where's the the f… [laughs] 442 00:27:52,643 --> 00:27:54,825 I don't know if we can do this! 443 00:27:54,825 --> 00:27:58,239 Okay we're trying this again with a bag. 444 00:27:58,239 --> 00:27:59,531 [Gav] I'm going to hide again. 445 00:27:59,531 --> 00:28:02,339 [hammer time] 446 00:28:02,339 --> 00:28:06,521 Okay, it did pop right out. 447 00:28:06,521 --> 00:28:09,524 So that is probably somewhere in the room. 448 00:28:09,524 --> 00:28:10,968 -Okay -But we got it! 449 00:28:10,968 --> 00:28:13,635 -I'll let you know when I find that in 2028. 450 00:28:13,635 --> 00:28:16,782 [Alec] I mean I really don't know if anything's going to happen here, but we can try. 451 00:28:16,782 --> 00:28:17,978 -Okay 452 00:28:17,978 --> 00:28:18,628 -You ready to go? 453 00:28:18,628 --> 00:28:19,554 -Ready. 454 00:28:20,122 --> 00:28:22,820 In three. Two. One. 455 00:28:22,820 --> 00:28:23,736 [pfft] 456 00:28:23,736 --> 00:28:25,493 -Something happened! -Ohh, something happened! 457 00:28:25,493 --> 00:28:26,624 -That was big! 458 00:28:26,624 --> 00:28:28,546 -That was way… it's… 459 00:28:28,546 --> 00:28:31,680 -Oh, a smoke ring! -There’s like a smoke ring! 460 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:40,000 So, it would seem even the electrically-operated flashbulbs still relied on explosives to initiate the zirconium burn. 461 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,830 But what is that explosive? 462 00:28:42,830 --> 00:28:43,919 Well… 463 00:28:43,919 --> 00:28:45,260 I don’t know. 464 00:28:45,260 --> 00:28:52,218 I found references to a so-called “ignition paste” in a patent filed for an improvement to flash lamps made… 465 00:28:52,218 --> 00:28:54,217 way too late for it to do any good. 466 00:28:54,217 --> 00:28:59,261 And following that thread led me to a discussion where rhenium was coming up. 467 00:28:59,261 --> 00:29:02,150 I followed through on that patent the folks were discussing 468 00:29:02,150 --> 00:29:07,168 and it mentioned rhenium in the composition of the filament but not the ignition beads. 469 00:29:07,168 --> 00:29:09,081 Ignition beads? 470 00:29:09,081 --> 00:29:15,001 Well, in this macro shot it does appear as though the filament was covered in little beads of something. 471 00:29:15,001 --> 00:29:18,390 As the filament broke, one even went flying! 472 00:29:18,390 --> 00:29:22,221 After a little more digging, it seems that in order to improve reliability 473 00:29:22,221 --> 00:29:24,548 (particularly with weak batteries) 474 00:29:24,548 --> 00:29:32,931 flashbulb filaments were designed to be deliberately weak in order to get hot (and therefore begin incandescence) essentially instantly. 475 00:29:32,931 --> 00:29:37,991 But that meant it was probably going to break before the zirconium began to burn. 476 00:29:37,991 --> 00:29:42,983 Whichever bead of primer was closest to the weakest and hottest part of the filament 477 00:29:42,983 --> 00:29:50,131 was almost certainly going to ignite, sending a plume of incandescent sparks out amongst the zirconium. 478 00:29:50,131 --> 00:29:54,325 That means that there are actually four steps to this process: 479 00:29:54,325 --> 00:29:58,240 first, a camera sends power through the filament as its shutter opens. 480 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:03,289 Then, the electrical resistance of that filament causes it to get hot to the point of incandescence 481 00:30:03,289 --> 00:30:05,620 in a miniscule fraction of a second. 482 00:30:05,620 --> 00:30:11,096 Next, the resulting heat ignites at least one of the primer beads on that filament 483 00:30:11,096 --> 00:30:15,549 which sends a plume of sparks out into the nest of zirconium wire. 484 00:30:15,549 --> 00:30:21,176 Finally, some of those bits of burning primer collide with the fine zirconium wire, 485 00:30:21,176 --> 00:30:27,131 causing it to rapidly burn in the oxygen atmosphere and emit brilliant light as it does so. 486 00:30:27,131 --> 00:30:34,940 In the end, both styles of flashbulb rely on an explosion to reliably set the zirconium they contain alight. 487 00:30:34,940 --> 00:30:41,383 Sylvania’s Magicubes take a literal shotgun approach by firing sparks up through the primer tube, 488 00:30:41,383 --> 00:30:45,104 but now that we know the electrically-fired ones do, too, 489 00:30:45,104 --> 00:30:47,343 that almost seems reasonable. 490 00:30:47,343 --> 00:30:53,085 This footage of the larger M2B bulb firing is perhaps my favorite shot we got. 491 00:30:53,085 --> 00:30:59,239 You can clearly see the distinction between the primer explosive firing and the zirconium beginning to burn - 492 00:30:59,239 --> 00:31:03,866 in fact, you can see what looks like a piece of filament with its primer bead igniting 493 00:31:03,866 --> 00:31:07,712 long after being blown clear of its original position. 494 00:31:07,712 --> 00:31:12,893 Then we see the wire start to ignite, and as they burn like tiny little fuses, 495 00:31:12,893 --> 00:31:19,956 the bright spot in the bulb propagates until all of it is ablaze, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of smoke. 496 00:31:19,956 --> 00:31:21,587 And remember, in real-time, 497 00:31:21,587 --> 00:31:23,910 that all happens this quickly. 498 00:31:25,286 --> 00:31:26,430 [crack] 499 00:31:26,430 --> 00:31:27,197 Ahh! 500 00:31:27,197 --> 00:31:29,476 [laughter] 501 00:31:29,745 --> 00:31:32,019 So, uh, what did we learn today? 502 00:31:32,019 --> 00:31:34,541 Mainly that it’s brighter than I even imagined. 503 00:31:34,541 --> 00:31:41,735 Like, at one point we had a 95 nanosecond duration which is shorter than my brain can even comprehend, 504 00:31:41,735 --> 00:31:43,784 and it was still blowing out the sensor. 505 00:31:43,784 --> 00:31:47,706 Yeah, it was uh… a struggle to get some of these shots. 506 00:31:47,706 --> 00:31:51,196 And, uh, he was the one struggling, I was just touching wires together. -That’s true. 507 00:31:51,196 --> 00:31:53,836 Uh, we also saw, which was a big surprise to me, 508 00:31:53,836 --> 00:31:59,042 that the initiation fuse I guess you could say actually has some explosive charge on there. 509 00:31:59,042 --> 00:32:01,140 That was a surprise, I thought it was just… 510 00:32:01,140 --> 00:32:06,492 honestly I thought it was just putting current through some of the actual little schnerbles of wire, there. 511 00:32:06,492 --> 00:32:07,788 And people flew with these? 512 00:32:07,788 --> 00:32:11,564 Flew with them, and checked them in their bags and man. 513 00:32:12,431 --> 00:32:13,527 They were commonplace. 514 00:32:13,527 --> 00:32:17,663 As I was saying at one point, imagine you had to pay for every frame of film. 515 00:32:17,663 --> 00:32:19,847 Now you want a flash? That’s an extra… 516 00:32:19,847 --> 00:32:22,777 I don’t know what these were, maybe 25 cents? Who knows. 517 00:32:22,777 --> 00:32:24,914 Yeah, go ahead and venmo me. 518 00:32:24,914 --> 00:32:27,264 Ha, yeah, that’ll work. 519 00:32:27,264 --> 00:32:30,598 Well, thanks again to Gav for this awesome footage. 520 00:32:30,598 --> 00:32:34,070 I could not have made it without his assistance or definitely cameras, so. 521 00:32:34,279 --> 00:32:36,587 No worries, thank you very much for coming. 522 00:32:36,587 --> 00:32:37,736 Cheers! 523 00:32:38,962 --> 00:32:41,306 That was a very forced cheers, but I think we got it. 524 00:32:43,100 --> 00:32:45,628 [Gav imitates TC jazz] 525 00:32:47,243 --> 00:32:49,703 ♫ blindingly smooth jazz ♫ 526 00:32:51,334 --> 00:32:53,841 See this is the problem I have in here, just like… 527 00:32:53,841 --> 00:32:55,812 Oh is that what we were looking for? 528 00:32:55,812 --> 00:32:59,068 No… is it? No, the thing we heard was… 529 00:32:59,068 --> 00:33:00,757 hit the ground. 530 00:33:00,757 --> 00:33:01,942 That’s a piece of it though, I think. 531 00:33:01,942 --> 00:33:06,634 I think… if this isn’t the one we set off, it… I don’t know. 532 00:33:06,634 --> 00:33:08,850 This might be the one that we didn’t find. 533 00:33:09,867 --> 00:33:11,724 Well, hi! 534 00:33:11,724 --> 00:33:14,375 The problem is I can’t see the top of the frame. 535 00:33:14,614 --> 00:33:17,003 You wanna see if your head is in frame? -Yeah. 536 00:33:17,003 --> 00:33:19,363 I’ve got headroom, oh I could put my ha- oh yeah there’s plenty. 537 00:33:19,363 --> 00:33:21,780 I have hands! I could do that. 538 00:33:21,780 --> 00:33:25,453 …flash units like this often incorporated some sort of eject mechanism 539 00:33:25,453 --> 00:33:26,824 [rattle on the desk] 540 00:33:26,824 --> 00:33:27,398 [meh]… 541 00:33:27,398 --> 00:33:30,039 which would help you deal with the hot, spent bulb. 542 00:33:30,039 --> 00:33:34,433 But you’d still need to carry this and a box of… 543 00:33:34,433 --> 00:33:35,786 crap. 544 00:33:37,461 --> 00:33:40,163 Well, I think that was a brilliant video, don't you? 545 00:33:40,163 --> 00:33:42,609 Sure cast a bright light on the subject. 546 00:33:42,609 --> 00:33:45,400 But, I dunno, you think it was a little too flashy? 547 00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,075 Might have been dazzling, even. 548 00:33:48,075 --> 00:33:50,882 Oh well, always gotta balance exposure. 549 00:33:51,834 --> 00:33:53,375 Okay that last one didn't work.