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Topic: Deadly Nitrate Film
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Claus Harding
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1149
From: Washington DC
Registered: Oct 2006
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posted March 04, 2009 02:27 PM
It's amazing how one can forget about the obvious sometimes:
On Ebay, I almost got my hands on a 35mm two-reel short silent western from 1925, because the man who starred in it (Curly Witzel) had only made 3-4 films, so I thought it could make a nice little obscure film to have. I had planned to make blow-ups of some of the frames, since I have no 35mm projection capacity.
I say "almost" because after I won the bid, reality set in:
I suddenly realized that this, of course, had to be NITRATE stock, something I had completely blocked from my mind in the bidding on this film.
Amidst thoughts of my apartment going up in flames, I wrote the seller, explaining this, and asking to retract the bid, and he agreed.
He had had the film in his attic for something like 20 years in 100 or so degree heat in the summers ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) and said it looked fine as far as he could examine the reels, no decay or anything.
I got hold of the Library of Congress and they seemed quite interested, so I put them in touch with the seller. I trust the film got a good home. I mean, my home would have been a good home for it too, but I don't have fireproof compartments here ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Claus.
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"Why are there shots of deserts in a scene that's supposed to take place in Belgium during the winter?" (Review of 'Battle of the Bulge'.)
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Hugh McCullough
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 156
From: Old Coulsdon. Surrey. UK
Registered: Oct 2006
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posted March 04, 2009 05:41 PM
When I was a trainee projectionist, way back in 1959, one of my jobs was to burn all the offcuts that used to accumulate from splice making, film repairing etc, of Nitrate film.
This was done in the back yard of the cinema in a metal container by the simple method of throwing a lighted match on to the film, and standing well back.
The flames were accompanied by a yellowish, sulphorish smelling smoke.
In the UK the projection of Nitrate release prints was all phased out by the middle of the 1960s, but I do remember showing a Polish film, Man of Marble, at the London Film Festival in 1978, and this was a Nitrate copy.
Nitrate film decomposing
www.cinephoto.co.uk/misc_film_14.htm
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EIKI Ex 6100 xenon machine.
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Mitchell Dvoskin
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 128
From: West Milford, NJ
Registered: Jun 2008
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posted March 06, 2009 11:00 AM
The risk from nitrate film is not nearly as great as people these days seem to think. In the USA, nitrate was phased out in 1950, and all but gone by 1951. Unless it is decomposing, it presents no particular risk just sitting around. You don't want to ignite it however, as it produces it's own oxygen while it burns, making it very hard if not impossible to extinguish. This means that you only want run it on projectors that were designed for nitrate and have their fire containment intact, and you certainly don't want to have any open flame (cigarette or otherwise) around it.
Having burned a lot of nitrate over the years (nothing rare or lost), I can tell you that if anything, the nitrate fire in Cinema Paradiso is understated. My introduction to burning nitrate is as follows. Years ago, I was at a party with some other film collectors, and a mutual friend brought a decomposing 2000 foot reel of nitrate up to burn. We had all heard how dangerous nitrate was, but none of us had ever seen it burn. We put the reel horizontally on a cinder block out in the back yard, unraveled about 3 feet and lit it. The flame burned up the unraveled section just like a fuse. When it got to the main body of the reel, it sat there burning with a small flame for about 20 to 30 seconds. Just as we were all saying that this was not very spectacular, a whooshing sound was heard, a ball of flame formed around the reel, and a rocket jet flame shot upward higher than the roof line of the house. It burned this way for a few minutes, and when it was done, the steel house reel had partial melted. I've had a healthy respect for nitrate ever since.
However to be fair, we all drive around in vehicles that contain a tank of gasoline, which is even more volatile than nitrate. Gasoline, like nitrate film, is safe if stored and used properly.
When 35mm Safety Film was introduced in the USA, Kodak put an ultraviolet dye into all their safety stocks which under a black light would glow purple. Kodak did this so that during the transition, you could wind the film on to a core, hold a black light to the side, and instantly see if there were any nitrate sections in the reel (the nitrate would not glow purple). This is still useful to collectors.
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Hugh McCullough
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 156
From: Old Coulsdon. Surrey. UK
Registered: Oct 2006
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posted March 06, 2009 05:41 PM
Mitchell says that it was the nitrate in the emulsion that dangerous
I think that he is getting mixed up with Silver Nitrate emulsion, and Cellulose Nitrate Film base.
It is not the emulsion that is dangerous, but the composition of the film base.
Silver Nitrate is the main composition of film emulsion for both Nitrate and Safety film. It is literally made from small grains of silver, and is still in use today on all types of film cameras, and projection films.
Cellulose Nitrate film, normally just called Nitrate film, has a base that is a completely different type of animal.
It is made from Nitrocellulose, also called Cellulose Nitrate, and is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid. It is also also known as guncotton.
In the Kodak book 'Causes of Film Damage' they state that, and I quote, 'motion picture film support was of cellulose nitrate type of hazardous nature and highly inflammable'.
This statement I can endorse having seen a 2000 ft reel of nitrate literally explode during burning.
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EIKI Ex 6100 xenon machine.
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