[FirstClassSkeptic]

In order to take photographs of the strike, each B-29 was carrying two photoflash bombs mixed within the bombload. {NB - Korean War. Rerev] The photographs from the first two B-29s showed a supply train crossing the bridge. Bombs from the first two B-29s straddled the bridge while the trailing B-29's bombs struck the bridge dead center. The trailing bomber's tail gunner had a bird's-eye view of the spectacular result: The train crossing the bridge disappeared in a series of explosions and the violent secondary detonation of its load of ammunition. The tail gunner reported that the explosions turned the black night into day for almost 30 seconds.

http://www.jcs-group.com/military/war19 ... ngb29.html

Illumination - Fillers that when ignited produce a bright light. Illumination rounds are used to provide light for night missions and are found in many different configurations. The most common ordnance that has illumination fillers includes mortars, projectiles and projectiles. Illumination projectiles usually have a time fuze, which ignites the filler at a pre-determined time after it has been deployed and a parachute, which slows the projectiles decent thus providing longer illumination. On a range it is common to find projectile bodies that are left over from a successful illumination function as well as ordnance where for some reason or another the illumination filler did not burn. Although UXO with illumination fillers as less hazardous than high explosives rounds they can still be extremely dangerous and should be dealt with accordingly.

http://uxoinfo.com/uxoinfo/ordfillers.cfm

by 2nd Lt. Amy Gonzales
16th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

2/23/2006 - HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFPN) -- Explosive ordnance disposal Airmen with the 16th Civil Engineer Squadron destroyed a World War II-era explosive device found in Pensacola.

The 100-pound photo-flash bomb, common to the World War II or Korean War period, was found by construction workers Feb. 14 clearing storm debris in the waters of Santa Rosa Sound on Pensacola Beach.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123016426

http://www.af.mil/photos/mediagallery.a ... 5&page=125

(See last photo. Also not 'ball of fire' photo.)

M-46 photoflash bomb

(United States)

Notes: The M-46 was used during and after WWII for nighttime reconnaissance. It was filled with potassium perchlorate, detonated by a small black powder booster attached to the M-111 mechanical timer fuse. As it’s name implies, the 100lb M-46 produced an extremely bright (½ million candlepower) light for photography. The flash lasted less than 1 second. It was used for both reconnaissance and BDA (battle damage assessment) after air raids.

American ground crewmen did not like handling the M-46 as it was extremely fragile and sensitive to being jarred. An accidental detonation could obviously cause eye injury and the filler itself is slightly toxic.

http://www.harpoondatabases.com/Encyclo ... y2731.aspx

[FirstClassSkeptic]

When the bomb was dropped the arming wire was pulled, starting the mechanical time fuze. When the time set on the fuze had elapsed, the fuze booster ignited the flashlight powder. The resulting flash of light lasted for about 1/5th of a second and had a peak intensity of approximately 500,000,000 candlepower.

Because of the brilliance of the flash it would have been detrimental to the vision to watch the explosion of a photoflash bomb.

http://www.harringtonmuseum.org.uk/M46Photoflash.htm

[EyesWideOpen]

Excellent find FirstClassSkeptic.

[rerevisionist]

Yes, interesting stuff (and depressing. for my taste). I think you missed out powdered magnesium or aluminum and maybe other oxidisers for some colour.

Interesting how confusing a measure 'candlepower' is. An online source gives the sun as 2.8 x 10^27 candles. This seems to allow both for its distance and all-round illumination. A common Internet figure for the sun is 127,000 candles, but this compares with a candle at 1 metre. I doubt very much whether a photoflash bomb seen from a distance would look as bright as the rising or setting sun. Maybe they discovered this problem with Hiroshima!

[FirstClassSkeptic]

I doubt very much whether a photoflash bomb seen from a distance would look as bright as the rising or setting sun. Maybe they discovered this problem with Hiroshima!

Yes, I wondered how this would appear in daylight. Would it cause a noticeable flash? Could it be made bigger? Could they have used something like this at Hiroshima? One of those survivors in the Hiroshima book said the flash looked like a photoflash.

On the aluminum note: One of those links I gave above, I think UXOINFO, tells about mixing some explosive with aluminum to give a fifty percent bigger explosion under water.

[EyesWideOpen]

There is absolutely no reason for a "photoflash bomb" to be as bright as the Sun. I can hold a camera 10 feet from someone in the daytime and make it flash very brightly in their eyes. Likewise, I could explode a "photoflash bomb" in the sky and have it flash very brightly in someones eyes a 100 yards or a mile away; in no way does it have to compete with the Sun or be as bright as the Sun.

Ps. I dont think a "photoflash bomb" is required to enforce the Atomic Bomb Lie. Stories are made up all the time that do not rely on any physical fact to support them (eg. a flash in the sky). Eye witnesses are known liars in many scenarios (holohoax, 9/11, etc..). The dropping of "incendiaries" alone would cause a flash of light people would see before being engulfed in flames from the said incendiary/oil mixture. Trauma affects an accurate reflection of events tremendously.

[rerevisionist]

If you want to fake a nuclear bomb, then you need a flash brighter than the sun. That was part of the story. You seem to be talking about illumination at night, which is something else.

It's perfectly possible that military person A said, well we have photoflashes of a million candlepower, and the sun's only 1/8 of that. A misunderstanding could well have been caused with person B.

[FirstClassSkeptic]

Ps. I dont think a "photoflash bomb" is required to enforce the Atomic Bomb Lie.

I don't think so either, but it just caught my attention. I had never heard of such a thing. Of if I did, I forgot.

It could have been used, say, at Trinity, to fool the other scientists who weren't in on the gig.

[rerevisionist]

Inventing the A-Bomb: Flash, Blast, Heat, Radiation,Mushroom Cloud
A-bomb-myth-flash-blast-heat-radiation-cloud-1-of-4.html

That's our forum analysis of what would be needed if the properties of an atom bomb were being made up. Norbert Weiner said an atom bomb 'is a model of a star' so a flash would definitely be part of it. Plenty of civil defense films have a few whited-out frames of film to show what a nuclear bomb would supposedly be like in your home town.

[EyesWideOpen]

Ps. I dont think a "photoflash bomb" is required to enforce the Atomic Bomb Lie.

I don't think so either, but it just caught my attention. I had never heard of such a thing. Of if I did, I forgot.

It could have been used, say, at Trinity, to fool the other scientists who weren't in on the gig.

Agreed. A FLASH is not required, only control of Film-Footage/Media is. Furthermore, trying to say a PhotoFlash Bomb has to be as bright as the Sun to be seen during the daytime is just plain wrong and funny. Its like saying a normal explosion has to be as bright as the Sun to be seen. Flashes can be seen very clearly in BRIGHT DAYLIGHT, even a simple camera flash is extremely bright in the daytime. Attempting to have people compare this "PhotoFlash Bomb" to the Sun is like having people compare a supposed Nuke Bomb to 100,000 tons of Explosives going off. In all cases, the BOMBS are soo powerful that people do not have enough experience to accurately differentiate what they are seeing.

[FirstClassSkeptic]

Of all the survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I wonder what percentage of them actually saw a flash?

[FirstClassSkeptic]

Flash powder is usually made from a
very fine powdered metal that will burn
and an oxidizer. Powdered aluminum is
used the most because it is cheaper.
Powdered magnesium and zinc will also
work. The oxidizer can be Barium
Nitrate, Ammonium Perchlorate, Barium
Peroxide, Strontium Nitrate, Potassium
Chlorate, Potassium Perchlorate, Sodium
Chlorate, Potassium Permanganate,
others, and any combination of these.
All the Chlorate are friction and
impact sensitive, and also the Perman-
ganate. Potassium Perchlorate is the
least sensitive of the Chlorates.

http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/INCEND ... 80-100.txt

Several formulas and instructions given.

http://www.nctc.gov/site/technical/tnt.html
Flour has seven times the blast pressure of TNT. Interesting. Aluminum has ten.

http://uxoinfo.com/blogcfc/client/inclu ... Ord_Id=Y11

Looks like a later version of a photoflash bomb. Only, not a bomb; it's made to shoot from a cannon.