Monday, August 6, 2018

Blast from the past


5 comments:

  1. Flash Cubes? The past? Nah, the past was when I was a high school kid with a Crown Graphic using 2&1/4 by 3&1/4 sheet film my rich uncle gave me and I had to lick the contact point on a flash bulb before inserting it into the flash gun and turning it a quarter twist to lock the bayonet socket.

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  2. Flashcubes and pics from my Instamatic that turned red. Ah the good old days.

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  3. used these years ago as a "mine simulator" during point defense exercises in a NATO unit I was assigned to. all it took was a piece of monofilament line to trip the flash. first time I used it I found the agressors had wonderful looks on their faces when they tripped the "wire" and were instantly blinded by the flash. useful as a simulator for a claymore when setting up an ambush kill zone.
    great cheap assed training device and fairly reliable. never got the eight shot flat flash for the 110 Kodak camera to work as well. that would have been impressive.

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    Replies
    1. Great minds think alike. Shortly after a class on how to set these up, the next class was indoors. The instructor was late, so we booby-trapped his chair. In the field, we would use rubber bands to tension the trip wire at both ends. If some genius decide to cut the wire (yeah, monofilament) it would still go off.

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  4. When I delivered singing telegrams, I'd rig a paper clip into the contact points and then palm the cube.

    Big grin, say "SMILE!" and hold my hand up and set off the flash. Startled looks, lotsa laughs.

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