Flash

“ I have heard of a woman thrown into a trance by a flash of lightning, unable to speak or stir, and a second thunderstorm, months after, another flash, and she was cured, and the interval between was gone from her recollection. ”

“ Flash, flash ... flash. Shell upon shell bursts, sullen and angry, above, below, on either side of the blinded bird, lit up so clearly and helplessly. Spurt, spurt, spurt of flame on the ground! A few seconds pass like the ticking of a clock—flash, flash, flash—the answering shells burst into brilliance near the crossing of the two beams.
"Oh! Look, Jimmy! They've got somebody over Ghistelles! By Jove! They have got him too. He is not going to escape. They are giving him hell. Look! ”

“ In the lighter storms thirty and thirty-five flashes may be counted in a minute: so vivid is the glare that it discloses the finest shades of colour, and appears followed by a thick and palpable gloom, such as would hang before a blind man’s eyes, whilst a deafening roar simultaneously following the flash, seems to travel, as it were, to and fro overhead. ”

“ A body illuminated by an instantaneous flash continues to be seen for the sixth of a second after the flash has become extinct; and if the body thus illuminated be in motion, it appears at rest at the place where the flash falls upon it. When a colour-top with differently-coloured sectors is caused to spin rapidly the colours blend together. Such a top, rotating in a dark room and illuminated by an electric spark, appears motionless, each distinct colour being clearly seen. ”

“ At one time a flash will dazzle you; at another, the darkness is as that of midnight; the alternating gloom being always longer than the period of light, and all the more intense by reason of the other's brightness. ”

“ Fixed and Flashing.—Fixed light varied by a single white or coloured flash, which may be preceded and followed by a short eclipse. This type of light, in consequence of the unequal intensities of the beams, is unreliable, and examples are now seldom installed although many are still in service. ”

“ One long flash is the signal for attention, and as soon as it is answered, you may give the message to be transmitted. One short flash means that game is in sight. Two short flashes means the enemy is in sight. ”

“ A disposition of the mirrors, which, together with the greater quickness of the revolutions, which shows a flash once in five seconds of time, produces a very striking effect, totally different from that of a revolving light, and presenting the appearance of the flash alternately rising and sinking, the brightest and darkest periods being but momentary ”

“ An elderly man, groggy from heat and smoke, stood behind the open window, perceptibly weaving back and forth as if about to fall. With horror, Flash realized that in some way the fellow had been overlooked when firemen searched the building. ”

“ A flashing light is one in which the flash is of less duration than the eclipse, while an occulting light has an eclipse equal to or less than the period of light. Flashes and eclipses are often grouped and receive the name of group flashing or group occulting. ”

“ But it did not suffice to ruin the illusion of movement. A white flash destroys apparent motion, owing to the brain being extremely sensitive to white: a black flash of equal duration exercises no ill effects. ”

“ It had just so happened that I had become interested in what are side flashes, or what are called "supplementary" ones. Now the question has been mooted as to what is the character of what seems to our vision to be second flashes—that is, apparent flights of electrical fluid coincident with the first or strongest one, and some scientific men think that as often as not we see the reflection of the important flash mirrored by the clouds in many different directions. ”

“ As the light was turned successively upon one and another of the clusters of glass, sometimes it would flash along the whole line so rapidly that all the various combinations of color and motion seemed to be combined in one, and then for a time each particular set of fireworks would blaze, sparkle, and coruscate by itself, scattering particles of colored light as if they had been real sparks of fire. ”

“ I maintain, in fact, that if the physicist could describe truly and fully all that occurs in the physical world when there is a flash of lightning, it would contain as a constituent what I see, and also what is seen by anybody else who would commonly be said to see the same flash. ”

“ Staggering against the window sill, he motioned to the photographer. His lips moved, yet made no audible sound.
“Stay where you are!” shouted Flash. “Don’t go away! I’ll bring help!”
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He was not certain the old man understood or would obey. But he dared waste no time by repeating his instructions. At any moment the fellow might be overcome, or the walls might fall.
Flash ran to the window where he had last seen the engine man. The hose lay there but the fireman was gone, evidently called to a more urgent post. ”

“ If two persons, standing in a room, looking different ways, and a loud clap of thunder, accompanied with zigzag lightning, happen, they will both distinctly see the flash at the same time; not only the illumination, but the very form of the lightning itself, and every angle it makes in its course will be as distinctly perceptible, as though they had both looked directly at the cloud from whence it proceeded. ”

“ Hence, if a man watches the play of the flash from his mirror upon a very near object, it will appear to him of the shape and size of the mirror; but as he retreats from the object, the edges of the flash become rounded, and very soon the flash appears a perfect circle, of precisely the same apparent diameter as the disc of the sun: it will, in short, look just like a very faint sun. The signaller has to cause this disc of light to cover the person whose notice he wishes to attract. ”

“ There was the sound as of a body forcing its way over the sill cautiously, then a step upon the floor inside, another, and still another. The figure of a man loomed up suddenly against the glow of a flashlight as he threw the round, white ray inquisitively here and there over the rear wall. ”

“ What is this force with which an experience occurs? Certainly experiences may be of the utmost intensity without thereby being any more easy to convey. A lightning flash, for example, which just misses one upon a summit, is much more difficult to describe than the same flash seen from the valley. ”

“ Section I.—The purpose which a Lightning Conductor is intended to serve. A flash of lightning is the passage of an electric spark between two bodies oppositely or unequally electrified, and between which the difference of electric pressure or potential is sufficiently strong to break across the air space which separates them, and to produce what is known as a disruptive discharge. A flash may pass either between one cloud and another, or between a cloud and the earth. ”

“ I once more raised the flashlight. This time my hand shook perceptibly as I turned the electric ray directly in front of me. I let the minute circle of illumination arrow through the darkness, direct to the white face that seemed to be awaiting it. ”

“ It is supposed by many, that when the spark is long enough we can note the direction in which it travels; and observations of the motion of lightning from the earth to the cloud have been collected, as showing that the usually observed direction of the flash is sometimes reversed. In reality, no one has ever seen a lightning flash travel either one way or the other. If the attention is fixed on the storm cloud, as usual when a lightning storm is watched, every flash appears to pass from the cloud to the earth. ”

“ Flash chuckled. Unless he greatly over-estimated the pictures, they were the best of his career. Why, he might even win a by-line for himself! He could visualize the caption—“Photographs by Jimmy Evans.” Only a simple line which few newspaper readers would notice. But to a photographer it meant everything.
Flash returned the films to the water, and opened the door of the darkroom. Orris was still outside, talking with Joe Wells who had wandered into the department on his way home from a movie. ”

“ One could almost believe that lightning takes a certain pleasure in looking at its diaphanous and fugitive form in the mirrors hung as ornaments in our drawing-rooms. [201]
In 1889, a very coquettish flash of lightning rushed to a mirror, breaking more than ten openings in the gilt frame. Then it evaporated the gilding, spreading it over the surface of the glass, while on the silvered back the evaporation of this latter metal produced the most beautiful electric traceries. ”

“ During a thunder-storm at night, if you should ever happen to see a walking or a running man illumined by a flash of lightning, you will notice that he does not appear to be moving at all, unless the flash occurs just at the time when his legs are fully extended. ”

“ First, if we accept the results arrived at by Professor Ogden Rood, of Columbia College, what appears to the eye as a single flash of lightning, consists, in fact, as a general rule, of a succession of flashes, each one of which must naturally produce its own peal of thunder; and although the several flashes, if they follow one another at intervals of the tenth of a second, will make one continuous impression on the eye, the several peals of thunder, under the same conditions, will impress the ear as so many distinct peals. ”

“ The flash must be bright enough for the image of what is seen to remain long enough on the eye for the observer to be able to attend to it, and even to shift his attention from one part to another, and thus to make a drawing of what is seen. If necessary the experiment must be capable of repetition, with an exactly similar drop falling from exactly the same height, and illuminated at exactly the same stage. ”

“ It is obvious that if a discharge of lightning is not instantaneous, but has a sensible duration, the rotary movement of the camera, arranged as just mentioned, will spread out the image of the flash, on the photographic plate, into a more or less broad band or ribbon. ”

“ I would need a photographic plate of many acres in area to receive the complete electrograph of a lightning flash one mile long.
“The electrograph resembles the X-ray print in that no camera is needed in its production. The camera has been used in the course of the experiments, but for a different purpose. Artificial lightning flashes sixteen inches long have been produced by the influence machine. ”

“ If we stand on an eminence commanding a view of a number of cannon, say a mile distant, which the soldiery are from time to time firing, a decided difference of time will be perceived between the flash and the report; the same observation applies to lightning, a considerable interval often occurring between the flash and the thunder. Hence, light is said to travel faster than sound. ”

“ In 1874 he invented the group flash system for enabling mariners to distinguish one light from another, the flashes in his system being of varying length and separated by varying intervals of darkness as characterising the lights more distinctly. ”

“ Flash.—Cant language, also to sport or show off. A fellow who affects any particular habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner, taking a fashionable snuff, &c., &c., merely to be noticed, is said to do it out of flash. Flashman, a despicable wretch and the paramour of a prostitute. ”

“ The photographic department was dark and deserted. Flash did not bother to turn on the lights. Entering the darkroom, he closed the door.
Unwilling to take any chance by using old developer or hypo, he mixed fresh chemicals before switching on the green light and removing his precious film from the holder.
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Carefully, to avoid the slightest scratch, he lowered it into the tank and kept the water moving. In an agony of hope and suspense he watched as a faint image began to appear on the negative. He had something, but would it turn out to be only a blur?
“Coming up clear and fast!” ”

“ The ones at the left either rest upon or are hidden behind a rise of ground, whose crest can be traced for a little distance each side of the flash, while those at the right come lower, falling between the observer and the ground at that point. Probably, when measured upon this diagonal and curved line, the width of the flash was fifteen or twenty feet.
Mention has already been made of the fact that the accompanying thunder was comparatively light, and not at all like that ordinarily heard when lightning occurs within so short a distance. ”

“ It is certain, then, that the eye's estimate of the intensity of the illumination resulting from a lightning flash is far short of the truth. This is equally true even in those cases where lightning is said to be for awhile continuous. If the flashes for a time succeed each other at less intervals than a twenty-fifth of a second, the illumination will appear continuous. ”

“ At the head of these, the waterfalls flash out into the sunlight, as if pouring through vertical bowers of verdure. Such enchantment, too, breathes over the whole, that it seems a fairy world, all fresh and blooming from the hand of the Creator. ”

“ From that level it broods over the man and takes or makes opportunities to discharge itself by sections, sending down from itself a flash like lightning to strike, or a finger to touch, sometimes far down on the physical plane, sometimes a sort of extension which reaches only the astral plane, and sometimes what we may call a horizontal flash or finger upon the mental plane. ”

“ The glare of the sun that is reflected from each point of the surface of a mirror forms a cone of light whose vertical angle is constant, and equal to that subtended by the sun. Hence when a flash is sent to a distant place, the size of the mirror is of no appreciable importance in affecting the size of the area over which the flash is visible. ”

“ Every time that the flashing light gains or loses one complete flash, upon the motion of the tuning-fork, it will appear to make one complete oscillation, and the water-drops will appear to move back or on one place. ”