|
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Nitrate Scare
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
|
posted 11-26-2002 09:06 PM
That "NITRATE FILM" wording in your photo is light letters against a black background, so the lettering was on the edge of the printing NEGATIVE and printed through with the printer edgelight. Your additional "NITRATE" print lettering of black on clear, either ink or latent image numbering, definitely indicates a NITRATE print as well.
You need to treat the print itself as nitrate, unless it passes a test for safety film:
Here's the information you need:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/environment/kes/pubs/pdfs/H182.pdf
Interpretation of a "burn test" of a tiny sample should be trusted only if you have first-hand experience judging the speed of the flame propagation. You did say "it burns real good", implying nitrate. Otherwise, chemical analysis or specific density tests should be used.
For now, store the print in a cool, dry area. Do NOT store it in an occupied residence or public building. Your photos look like the print is in good condition, and you were able to project it -- probably minor Stage 1 deterioration, and DEFINITELY worth saving. If the film has not progressed to "Stage 3" deterioration, it is still stable. (Stage 4 or 5 is very unstable and should be kept under water until a hazmat crew can deal with it. If an archive is interested in the print, they will help with the shipping instructions.
Hope this helps.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
|
posted 11-27-2002 08:14 AM
Some years ago I took a small peice of nitrate film, put in on the end of a long screwdriver, and held it about 50mm from the ceramic radients of a gas fire. This caused serious problems, my hand, which was about 250mm away from the fire, could only stand the heat for a few seconds, and I had to keep changing hands. I then tried the same thing, but with my hand in a heat proof foundry gauntlet. Eventually, the nitrate did ignite, but it took several minutes. Repeating the test with several samples of film of varying ages and makes produced similar results. I also tried applying a flame directly to a sample of film. It did not ignite if I quickly pased the flame across it, but did if the flame was held against it for even a fraction of a second. Of course, in normal use, including projection, film would not be exposed directly to a flame, and the time for which film is normally exposed to radient heat in a projector gate is far less than the time it took to ignite in the gas fire test. I think it likely that nitrate film would ignite if it jammed, and remained stationary in the gate for any length of time.
There was a case some years ago, I can't remember the details, where some film ignited having been stacked in cans in the sun for an extended period, what condition the film was in immediatly before it ignited is not known, but storing film in warm contitions is not a good idea.
Two other major nitrate fires spring to mind, one was some years ago at the Cinematheque Francais, and the other was more recent, maybe five to ten years ago at Hendersons Laboratories in London, in which the negatives of some of the Ealing films were destroyed. In neither case do I know the cause of the fire. If anybody here does know the actual cause, rather than just speculation, I would be interested to hear from them.
Storing nitrate film at home is not a good idea. I do from time to time have a single reel at home for cleaning, inspection etc., but only while I am actually working on it. If I stop working on it, e.g. for a lunch break, then it goes outside in a can. Having nitrate in the house while asleep should be absolutely out of the question. The problem is not so much of the nitrate starting a fire, but of a normal fire starting, for whatever reason, and this in turn igniting the nitrate. This would obviously make the fire much worse, and if you were asleep when it happened you would stand a very good chance of being overcome by fumes, and dying in the fire. In the very unlikely event of a reel of film igniting while being inspected on the bench you can at least get out.
A few years ago while on a visit to the NFTVA, I was able to examine some original nitrate negative from about 1912-1915. it was in a syncroniser, alongside a new fine grain which had been from it, and some other material of unknown age. It was in such good condition that I did not realise at first that I was looking at original material of this age. Stored under good conditions, black and white nitrate film is pretty stable, and I think may well prove to be less of aproblem from the preservation viewpoint, and easily outlast, early Eastmancolor, and similar, triacetate material from a few decades later.
Leo wrote:
quote:
As an archivist who (amongst other things) looks after nitrate film for a living, I agree with all of the above. It's actually quite hard to ignite the stuff. On the few occasions when I've burnt small quantities of badly decomposed (as in, beyond the point at which it can be copied) nitrate, it had to be in contact with the flame from the match for 2-3 seconds before it went up.
Leo, what state of decomposition was this film in, was it at the 'sticky' stage? I've heard reports from other people of film in this condition absorbing relativly large quantities of water from the air. When it later dries out to a brown dusty material it ignites much more easily. The small film sample which I ignited with a flame, was in good gondition, and took much less time than this, I would say less than a quarter of a second.
Nobody could dispute that nitrate film is a hazardous material, but so are plenty of other things which are handled and transported every day. If it is in good condition, and with sensible precautions, it can be handled without undue danger. I would certainly not recommend that it be stored at home, nor run from a platter in a multiplex cinema, nor on a portable projector set up in the middle of the audience in a hall. I was in the audience when that was done, sitting not far from the projector, but didn't find out until several weeks later that it had been a nitrate print. The projectionist was aware. I will say no more.
It is now becomming almost impossible to do anything with nitrate film; at least in this country it is just about impossible to find a cinema that is licenced to project it, it is difficult to find anybody that will transport it, few labs will print it etc. Goodness knows what will happen when some fool does do something stupid with it, and somebody dies as a result.
I would much rather be in a room where someone had dropped a roll of nitrate film than a room where someone had spilled a litre of petrol, (There was much more than a litre in the tanker which came very close to being in collision with a car as I was on my way to work last week, but nobody seems to worry too much about transporting petrol. Luclily, the tnker driver managed to avoid what could have been a very serious incident, and the car driver simply carried on, no doubt to do the same again another day. Why are there so many bad drivers around?) and I have to say that large xenon lamps worry me more than nitrate film does.
The film samples shown earlier in this thread look very like a 16mm Cinecolor print that I once saw. This was orange/red on one side, and blue/green on the other, and had a VD track on the blue side, like the example shown here. It actually sounded much better than I expected. I later heard it claimed that the blue colour was produced by toning with a chemical, an iron compound, I think, which absorbs strongly in the infra red. I dn't know if this is correct.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic