For Sale For free, but for pickup only: ancient 5x7 Nitrate film in Chicago area

frobozz · Dec 4, 2011

Still looking for someone to take this in the Chicago area - for obvious reasons I won't ship it. It's an opened box of outrageously old Kodak panchromatic film on a Nitrate base. It's open, but feels heavy enough to have most of the dozen sheets inside. Or heck who knows, maybe it has processed negatives inside! I haven't opened it to investigate. Who knows if the film is even usable. I do know it's a little dangerous, so no shipping. I live in Vernon Hills and work in Northbrook and could figure out somewhere to meet to hand this off.

Duncan

vpwphoto · Dec 4, 2011

I was part of on archive cataloging at a university. We realized we had hundreds of pounds of this.
I snipped a corner, and yes it burns with great viggor! I dunno where all that film is now.
I know most was scanned.

Mark Fisher · Dec 5, 2011

Must resist...see house burning down around me. You work only a few miles from my house, but I will resist! Cool stuff, though.

zsas · Dec 5, 2011

Same here, thought about it about 4 times today but going to skip this one...

frobozz · Dec 5, 2011

OK, maybe I'll have to open it and see what's inside. I have a Photec high speed 16mm camera, maybe I should film a piece of this stuff burning, at 10,000 fps

Duncan

dfloeter · Dec 5, 2011

My dad would bring this stuff home from the studio and make the most impressive smoke bombs. Maybe the best use? Although if I were closer I would be tempted to shoot it, scan it and if worried enough about safety, burn it.

So, he used roll film but still the same idea. Rolled up in a layer or two of newsprint, light the paper and as soon as the film started to burn, blow out the flame. Good fun for small children.

herb · Dec 5, 2011

Free for shipping

you have to remember that many many hundreds of movie houses used this stuff in a projector that was lit by an arc light with no problems. It is nowhere near as dangerous as kerosene, IMHO. If you have a lot of it subjected to high heat or an ignition source, then big problem. Ask Photo Engineer what he thinks about shipping it.

frobozz · Dec 5, 2011

I think one of the big problems is that it was flammable when new... but extra-flammable when old. And this stuff is really really old.

So yeah, projectionists could carefully successfully project it with arc projectors... but once it gets old, it's in danger of bursting into flames just sitting there, if you get enough of it in one place and it's decaying. This is neither very much of it, nor does it smell like it's decaying, but I still wouldn't feel safe shipping it. (Though for the record, it was shipped to me, in a big batch of old film and paper I bought with scant details about what it was, on ebay!)

Duncan

Dan Daniel · Dec 5, 2011

BY the way, projection booths were often built with solid cement walls and steel doors that would drop down and seal off the projection room in case of a fire. To keep a fire from spreading. Being a projectionist was a highly paid job, partly because of this hazard.

Decay of nitrate includes acids, does it not? I worked in an archive with them, and the dust was considered hazardous because it forms an acid when activated by landing on wet surfaces, like lungs. And the smoke when burned is toxic. All in all, pretty nasty stuff.

The odds are that unless the film is sealed, moisture will have led to a blob of decayed film inside the box.

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cellulose.pdf
"On no account should cellulose nitrate film be sent by post, carried on
public transport or disposed of as refuse."

For Sale For free, but for pickup only: ancient 5x7 Nitrate film in Chicago area

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