Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: O.Winston Link Recordings On Nationsal Recording Redistry

This is topic O.Winston Link Recordings On Nationsal Recording Redistry in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-19-2004, 06:49 PM:

The famous recordings of Steam engines made by O.Winston Link back in the 50's have made the list this year. The entire list can be view at this link.... There's some very interesting stuff this year.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-2003reg.html

MArk

Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 03-20-2004, 04:49 AM:

That guy's photos are amazing. I had the pleasure of meeting him when we held an exhibition of his work here in the Museum back in the 1980's.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 03-20-2004, 04:50 PM:

There's a poster print of one of his pictures hanging in a corridor at work, the one with the swimmers in the foreground, and a train passing in the distance.

I've got a fair number, about 70, 'Link sized' flashbulbs, the one in the Speed Graphic that I'm holding in my picture is somewhat smaller, but I've never dared to fire one. The biggest thing I've ever used is a No.5, and I still use the much smaller M3. M5 and AG1 bulbs.

I'm looking for something to try one of the large ones on; a large building maybe, or a small village! [Smile]

Anybody here ever used flash powder?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-20-2004, 10:25 PM:

Stephen,
Does that company you once mentioned up in Ireland or Scotland that still makes flash bulbs make the #70 bulbs?

I'd be willing to bet that when Link took many of his famous shots that it looked somewhat like the light from an atomic blast.... and probably visible from a long way away. Judging from the great depth of field found in many of his shots...that takes an f-stop of at least somewhere in the f-16 to f32 range and I believe that he also used a slower speed film, not Tri-X like many would have.... so man, that was some huge amount of really bright light!

Mark

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 03-22-2004, 03:13 PM:

That company is Meggaflash, they have a web site here .

There seem to have been three main series of flashbulb numberings:

GE - 5, 11, 22 etc.

Sylvania - Press 25, 0, 2, 3 etc.

Philips - PF1, PF5, PF14, PF25, PF60, PF100 etc.

Meggaflash took over part of the old Sylvania production line, and is making equivilant of three of it's bulbs, the 2, 3 and FF33, but have renumbered them PF200, PF300 and PF300.

All of these are the large, screw cap type. Meggaflash had intended to produce a smaller bulb, a completely new type, I think they were going to call it the PF50, it was a spherical bulb, about 50mm in diameter, but still with the screw cap, not the smaller bayonet one. I have a pre-production one in my collection, but they didn't put it into full production. As far as I know, no other company is making flashbulbs today, and therefore no smaller types are being made. The Meggaflash bulbs are very expensive, I buy my bulbs cheaply at camera fairs, or on Ebay. I don't use very many, and have enough to last the rest of my life, and to leave some for others after me.

Flashbulbs are still used by special effects people, and cave photographers amongst others, and the PF330 type, which burns for almost two seconds, is used for high speed cinematography, where a great deal of light is needed for a short period, for recording things like destructive testing.

Apart from about two thousand of smaller 'usable' bulbs, I've got quite a large collection of all types, foil filled, SF and SM type fast ones with no wire, long burn flat peak ones for focal plane shutters, yellow ones for tungesten film, black ones for infra red and a 'Sashalight' the first British-made bulb, not quite the worlds oldest, but almost as old. This had a small screw cap, the idea being that there weren't any flash guns then, you uses a torch (flashlight), took the front off it, screwed in the flashbulb in place of the normal torch bulb, looked away, pressed the switch and ... got showered in broken glass if the thing exploded. There was no lacquer coating, and no safety spot to show if any air had got in.

A book 'Photo-Flash', published by Focal Press, has a great picture af a market, lit by fifty one of the huge GE No. 75 bulbs.

Some of Frank Hurley's photographs of the Endurance trapped in the ice were taken by 'magnesum flares', acording to a book I have; I assume this must have been an early predecessor of flash.

I met an old photographer, who was still using flash powder for special purposes, as late as the late '40s, mainly for things like large banquet shots. He told me that he only got one shot, which filled the room with white smoke, so he couldn't try again if it went wrong, and he would beat a hasty retreat before the smoke particles started landing on posh suits and dresses!

In the right place the normally hated hard shadow of a single undiffused flash can produce dramatic resluts.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 03-23-2004, 12:43 PM:

Ol' Winston would light up a whole county when he did a night shot! I have a bunch of his shots (all reproductions but great just the same).

Somehow one of our members at NJ Museum of Transportation / Pine Creek RR ( www.njmt.org ) knew him and acquired an N&W "hooter" whistle off an A-class and we have put that whistle on our engines once in awhile. Takes a little quilling practice to make it hoot and sing but it so great to hear.