A low pressurez‐pinch flash lamp, employing one capacitor and a single spark gap, is described. With an input energy of 2000 J, the pulse width (&tgr;e) of the flash was found to be 1–2 &mgr;sec, exhibiting continuous emission down to 125 nm with a maximum at 250±10 nm. This simple lamp thus provides a convenient, routine photolytic source of pulsed vacuum uv radiation that may be employed in conjunction with kinetic spectroscopy.