A glass or quartz tube filled with a special gas that produces a bright flash of light when electrical current passes through it, used in camera flash units.
Compound of 'flash' + 'tube,' a technical term that emerged with the development of electronic flash technology in the mid-20th century.
Flashtubes were a revolutionary photography technology—they could fire thousands of times and were much safer and more reliable than the older flashbulbs that could only be used once.
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