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Exposure, light & focusDiscovery or inventionObsoleteImpact: significant

Magnesium flash powder

1887 (Miethe and Gaedicke, Germany)

A powder of magnesium and an oxidiser that burned in a blinding flash, bright enough to photograph dark interiors and people at night for the first time.

How it began

Burning magnesium ribbon had been used as a light since the 1860s, but it burned slowly. In 1887 Adolf Miethe and Johannes Gaedicke mixed fine magnesium powder with an oxidiser, so the whole charge went off at once.

How it works

The powder burns in a tiny fraction of a second and gives off intense light, rich in the blue that the emulsions of the day were most sensitive to. Combined with fast dry plates, that was enough to record a scene that daylight never reached.

Why it mattered

It opened up the dark: interiors, night scenes and the slums that reformers such as Jacob Riis photographed to change public opinion.

Limits and what replaced it

It was loud, smoky and dangerous, and burned photographers badly. The enclosed flashbulb (1929) and then electronic flash replaced it.

Today

Replaced by safer flashbulbs and then electronic flash; it survives only in history and film props.

Sources