Anybody remember blue flash bulbs? You had to put them in a little box on the camera each time you wanted to take a picture or in a little hand held thingy that you held close to the camera (you needed three hands to take a picture in those days). They created a hell of a flash that left everybody seeing stars for hours afterwards. And they made a popping noise and got quite hot too, so you had to be careful when you were taking them out to put in another one. A big innovation was when they created flash bulbs that came in packs of 4 or 6, and you just snapped the whole lot of them into the holder and didn't have to change after each shot. The bulbs were incased in blue plastic squares.
I had a Polaroid camera that took pictures that, when they popped out of slot, were blank and then developed in front of your eyes. Pictures that I took with regular film have since faded and become discoloured, but those Polaroid shots are as crisp as the day I took them, although people had warned me not to buy the camera because they said the pictures would disappear the same way they appeared. Good thing I never listen to people. The flash bulbs for the Polaroid camera used to crackle after they were used and I always thought they looked so pretty that I wished I could think of something to make with them.
When cameras started to be made with something called "a built in flash" it was the height of sophistication in technology. Now there are people using cameras who have never even seen a flash bulb - blue or otherwise.
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