From www.youtube.com - November 7, 2011 2:07 AM

"This week I compare a modern electric photography flash to flash powder. Flash powder was an advanced lighting technique 150 years ago that photographers used similarly to how photographers use a flash today. In this video there are various tests with flash powder. One of the tests is a simple scene that was lighted with a modern flash and then flash powder so we can compare the images. Overall I was quite impressed with the amount of light that even a small amount of flash powder makes; however, there were many disadvantages to flash powder."