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Author
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Topic: Nitrate Film Collections
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Chris Erwin
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 195
From: Olive Hill,KY
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 10-23-1999 01:33 PM
Running around the net I noticed several nitrate prints for sale,which prompts me to ask these questions:Isn't is dangerous for average collectors to possess such items without proper measures? I mean most extisting nitrate films are in specialized valuts to help retard the dangerous (and sometimes deadly) decomposition of the film. Also, isn't there any restrictions on individuals having these prints? I know if you ship em' there are haz-mat restrictions. I am just curious. I like old cinema and history. I find it interesting to see how far our field has come. Your comments, stories and all other input appreciated. --Chris
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 10-23-1999 06:59 PM
Original nitrate prints really are beautiful when projected. I've never seen IB nitrate, but I have seen a silent-era short (original 1916 sepia print!) projected in someone's living room. It was really amazing; the most striking feature was that it really was razor-sharp and had none of the dupey quality that we normally associate with silent films.
That said, I wouldn't want nitrate in my home. When it burns, you can't put it out because it generates oxygen as it burns, which makes water and fire extinguishers useless. I have a few head and tail leaders on nitrate-base stock, but I don't want any more.
Part of the problem is that merely storing nitrate film in an unapproved facility is a pretty egregious fire-code violation in most localities in the US. If your building goes up in flames, your insurance company probably won't pay if they find out that you had any nitrate film stored there, even if it wasn't related to the fire.
Actually, there are a lot of antiquated fire codes that deal with nitrate film and projection booth construction. Here in Massachusetts, nitrate has been banned since the 1960s, but the projection-booth construction codes from the nitrate era still apply. To have a legal 35mm or 70mm home screening room in this state would be pretty much impossible, or at least prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, these laws don't seem to be rigorously enforced. (BTW, please don't report me!)
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 10-27-1999 10:37 PM
Okay, just for discussion...IF I run a nitrate print, (Which I never intend to do -- but just for information's sake), what do I need to know..?? I imagine it would be prudent to have a CO2 or Halon fire extinguisher. (Would it work?) If it does catch fire... what do you do? I imagine that you'd just let it burn itself out... (evacuate the theatre?) DON'T open the reel box! (Like Alfredo in "Cinema Paradiso" did.) I DO know that your projector must have:
1) fire traps
2) speed-governed fire shutter
3) reel-to-reel w/ enclosed reel boxes. (No platters -- DUH!) What else? Like I said, it's just for information's sake. (AND that 1 in 9,000,000 chance that I'd be faced with the problem.)
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 10-27-1999 10:55 PM
Your projector requirements are right: enclosed feed and take-up magazines, fire rollers for feed and take-up magazines, and a fire shutter (which are common on older projectors, but may not be standard for new machines). Also, the booth should be insulated with asbestos. Portholes should be no more than 144 square inches and have metal plates held with "fusable links" (usually lead wire) that will drop down if the booth temperature gets too high in order to prevent the noxious fumes from entering the auditorium. The booths where I have worked all date from the nitrate era and have had (or once had) all of these precautions. Thick, fireproof doors are also common, as is a separate room for film storage with metal reel cabinets. The rewind bench should be either handcranked or designed so that there is no chance of a spark from the motor coming near the film.
As far as I know, a fire extinguisher is pretty useless (though all booths should have them by code, for electrical equipment and whatnot) because nitrate produces oxygen as it burns and will even burn underwater.
In addition to the pics of the AFI fire on this site, I can also recommend the nitrate-burning-in-projector scene in the recent (1997) Turner documentary on film preservation, "The Race to Save 100 Years." I've seen this doc in 35mm at the Library of Congress and it's very good; I belive that it has been broadcast on one of the Turner cable channels as well.
I recently sent Brad a Neumade catalog from 1934; this includes lots of photos of nitrate-era safety equipment like film cabinets, film scrap containers, etc. Hopefully he'll get it soon and have some of the interesting stuff scanned.
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Stefan Scholz
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 223
From: Schoenberg, Germany
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 10-30-1999 02:44 PM
I have run, and at a time with my collector friend we owned nitrate prints. Black and white, and IB was breathtaking, unreached by acetate images.
The projection booth was still equipped with all the safety measures on projectors, like spool boxes, forced air colling, etc., and the building, like 20 inch concrete walls, explosion shutters and portholes with iron shutters, which were held by electric magnets. In case a film caught fire, it would burn a nitrate cotton fuse, acting a switch, which cuts out the booth's electrical main contactor supply. The shutters would fall, and hopefully the fire traps on the projectors would prevent the fire to enter the spool boxes. The only way to extinguish a nitrate fire, is to cool it down below inflaming temperature. This is only possible with small quantities of film, like the peace in the threading path. Normally the fire traps, large metal rollers, can cool down. If the fire reaches the spool box, you should immediately leave the room... poisenous combustion. As spool boxes must have about 1/6 of the area covered with grid iron, enough oxigen will enter the spool box, and the film will burn down in less than 2 minutes. Normally all you loose is the spool box, sad enough. Some local codes allowed large reels, in this case large was considered 2000 ft. Many local codes were limited to 1000 ft.My Bauer projectors used to have a compressor blower, cioldlight mirrors and Balzers dichroic heat filters. You could threafd a peace of film, use the lamp at 65 Amps, open dowser and fire shutter without the motor running, and the film would stay even in focus for more than one hour.
We have always kept the films in the original hardwood storage cabinets on the wall, and just carried a single reel to the projector. And there was always a projectionist next to the running projector. A collector I know was screening nitrate on his halogen lamp Vic 5 with 6000 ft (!) reels without spoolboxes. He encountered two nitrate fires, but fortunately was quick enough to cut the film with scissors, not to imagine what would have happened, if the upper spool would have caught fire... with some 10 nitrate prints lying around in his home theatre booth, and about 30 friends in the screening room. Do not think, handling nitrate is legal, here in Europe. There are strict fire codes, and handling, storing or screening nitrate without a special permit, approved class A equipment, approved booth with the mentioned concrete quality, and a PROJECTIONITS CERTIFICATE is considered a crime with a mininimum imprisonment of two years in jail, and high fines. With the correct safety measures and serviced equipment you could screen nitrate, and enjoy a totally different world of film presentation.
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