The electric flash-lamp uses electric current to start flash powder burning, to provide a brief sudden burst of bright light. It was principally used for flash photography in the early 20th century but had other uses as well. Previously, photographers' flash powder, introduced in 1887 by Adolf Miethe and Johannes Gaedicke, had to be ignited manually, exposing the user to greater risk.
Invention
The electric flash-lamp was invented by Joshua Cohen (a.k.a. Joshua Lionel Cohen of the Lionel toy train fame) in 1899, and by Paul Boyer in France.
[ Panthéon de la Légion d'honneur, vol. 2, by T. Lamathière] It was granted U.S. patent number 636,492.
[ Patent No. 636,492] This flash of bright light from the flash-lamp was used for indoor photography in the late nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century.
Joshua Lionel Cohen's flash-lamp patent 636,492 reads in part,
The principle of operation of the electrical flash-lamp is linked to the shutter of an early box camera: tripping the shutter ignites the flash powder and releases the potential energy of the exploding powder causing a bright flash for indoor photography.
Uses of flash-lamp
The main purpose of Cohen's invention was as a fuse to ignite explosive powder to get a photographer's flash.
[Beyer, p. 129 The navy thought it would make a great fuse for mines - which wasn't what Cowen had in mind - but he liked it fine when the government bought ten thousand of them.] One of the first practical applications, however, for Cohen's flash-lamp was as underwater mine detonator fuses for the U.S. Navy.
[ Aboutdotcom Cowen was an inventor of sorts; he developed a fuse to ignite photographic flash powder. Though the invention failed in its intent, the U.S. Navy bought up the fuses to use with underwater explosives.][ Joshua Lionel Cowen at a glance
In 1899, he patented a device for igniting photographers' flash powder by using dry cell batteries to heat a wire fuse. Cowen than parlayed this into a defense contract to equip 24,000 Navy mines with detonators.][ Invention & Technology Magazine In the 1890s Cowen invented several devices that could be powered by the newly available dry-cell batteries. One was a fuse for igniting photographic flash powder. The Navy ordered 24,000 of them to use as detonators for underwater mines.][ The Lionel Story In 1899, he patented a device for igniting photographers' flash powder by using dry cell batteries to heat a wire fuse. Cowen than parlayed this into a defense contract to equip 24,000 Navy mines with detonators.][ The History of the Flashlight Cowen was an inventor of sorts; he developed a fuse to ignite photographic flash powder. Though the invention failed in its intent, the U.S. Navy bought up the fuses to use with underwater explosives.][ This day in Jewish History Joshua Lionel Cowen passed away. Born in 1880, he was the American inventor of electric model trains who founded the Lionel Corporation (1901), which became the largest U.S. toy train manufacturer. At age 18, he had invented a fuse to ignite the magnesium powder for flash photography, which the Navy Department bought from him to be a fuse to detonate submarine mines.] In 1899, the year the invention was patented, the government awarded Cohen a $12,000 contract for 24,000
[The New Yorker magazine, Dec 13, 1947, p. 42] naval mine detonator fuses.
The use of the flash for photography was dangerous, and photographers could get burned hands from the flash.
Electric apparatus applications
A 1910 brochure for the Nesbit High Speed Flashlight Apparatus says,
See also
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Valentin Wolfenstein
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Flash (photography)
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Flashlight
Footnotes
Bibliography
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Beyer, Rick, The Greatest Stories Never Told - 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder & Stupefy, The History Channel, 2000,
