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Re: cellulose nitrate films storage
Hi,
I worked on a project reformatting Cellulose Nitrate negatives for
several years, and did lots of research into the storage and housing
of them.
The only truely stable way to store them is by freezing them. That
essentially freezes the deterioration of the film. Any other storage
condition is less than idea; as Nitrate negs deteriorate, they
off-gass chemicals that attach other photographic materials - Ihave
seen prints that are less than a year old bleach out and become
yellowed simply by being in the same box as nitrate negatives.
If you only have a handful of negs, I would make good prints of them
(fibre of course) and then make good copy negs of the prints. Then at
the very least, store the Nitrates in a place distant from your other
photo work, where they will not harm anything.
When we were done the project I worked on, the group then arranged for
destruction of the originals, as they presented too big a risk to the
other collections,
e.
On Sun, 12 Mar 2000 18:29:32 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi all
>I got from an hereditament some cellulose nitrate films.
>I Know they are highly flammable, but somebody told me they may generate a
>spontaneous combustion too.
>Is it true?
>
>Thanks
>Roberto Tartaglione
>
>
>
>
Eric Boutilier-Brown
Halifax, NS, Canada
Fine Photographic Art
http://ebb.ns.ca