240 Volts flash battery
 

I was looking on this old catalogue: http://www.cameramanuals.org/booklet...ographic_1.pdf
They mention at page 11 240 Volts batteries for flash units. Well, I heard about 90 Volts battiers for anodic current but 240 Volts... or there is a mistake?

Not a mistake:

https://www.google.com/search?q=240+...Jq0TMxvCiMnmM:

they also made a 510 volt flash battery:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthoped...olts-433794014

not affiliated, jr

:D Good thing I don't have one of those , I'd be double dog daring people to check it with their tongue like a 9 volt :D

Forget the tongue, you could check the voltage with your fingers....Not that I'd recommend it.:D

But how in the world did they managed to put so much voltage into such small thing?

Yep , 510 volts would give quite the bite , no tongue required !

In your 240 volt battery , they did it with 160 tiny cells of 1.5 volts each . The 510 volt version jr_tech posted would have had 340 1.5 volt cells , lots of voltage but with cells that small your not gonna have a bunch of current available ....

But still more than enough to give you a nasty bite anywhere on your body.

If you want even more volts from a battery then you want a Zamboni Pile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamboni_pile The available current is minute.

That led to some fascinating reading, namely the Oxford Electric Bell, Beverly Clock & Long Now Clock.

My father was a photographer and he used a lot of 510 volt batteries. He's been shocked by them and they do have one heck of a kick. BTW, there was another story where static electricity caused a flashbulb to go off .... in the palm of his hand. He had 3rd degree burns IIRC.

Seems it's a good ideea to grab the flashbulb by the glass.