An experiment with flashcubes

[Hellion]

:devil I don't know many people who tried this experiment before, but along time ago when i was really young, I discovered a box of GE magicubes in a utility drawer. I decided to take the cube apart and take every bulb out of the cube,well I accidently dropped one of the bulbs and it lit up like a strobe light. I could'nt understand why this happened because there were no batteries connected to the flashcube. Then after I discovered this I took another bulb and threw it against the wall and it broke shooting sparks all over the place. to this day I still don't know how this can happen if there is no electric current attached to the flash cube. Considering, I don't even know where you can find Magicubes for old cameras anymore. Does anyone even know about this or has ever done something like this before?

[phee]

Chemical reaction.... hard to find them today, but a photo store would be your best bet

[The_Dark]

Inside they have a charge of flashpowder that is fired mechanically. Flashpowder is also what is inside an M-80 or firecracker.

[Hellion]

:devil Yeah because the flashcubes that use battery power don't light up when you throw them,thanx for the info.

[The_Dark]

But they still have flashpowder inside them. You can actually wire them to fire from a battery. Model rocket enthusiast use them for launchers.