Sometimes crushed white sugar was burned with potash, or magnesium powder was sprinkled on guncotton.
Then place magnesium powder in the outer layer.
Thus magnesium powder (flash powder) was used as a source of illumination in the early days of photography.
Another flash composition common among amateurs consists of magnesium powder and potassium nitrate.
The magnesium powder should be smaller than 200 mesh, though up to 100 mesh will work.
There was plenty of magnesium powder in it, and the stuff produced a blinding brilliance.
Pistol lamps were dangerous and looked threatening, and would soon be replaced by another method for which Riis lit magnesium powder on a frying pan.
I allow some magnesium powder to fall across two bared contacts, and a brilliant white flash momentarily blinds the members of the audience closest to the stage!
The tracer compound contains composition R 284 which is 17% polyvinyl chloride, 28% magnesium powder, and 55% strontium nitrate.
Generally magnesium powder having a high specific surface area will exhibit a higher burn rate than those having a smaller specific area.