From: Sil Horwitz (silh@earthlink.net)
Date: 02/14/01-11:04:03 PM Z
At 2001/02/14 11:06 PM -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Richard... do you know much about cellulose nitrate -- where you get it
>for instance, how you spread it -- and solvent? I've been wanting to try
>it for something else but so far didn't find much...
Jumping in here. Cellulose nitrate is guncotton. To make a coating, it is
dissolved in ether and a plasticizer (old-timers used camphor) added. The
liquid emulsion is flammable and the dry product (celluloid) is explosive.
Personally, I wouldn't touch it. Film base used to be made of this stuff,
but it was substituted with cellulose acetate (whole different story) and
that has been substituted in turn (by most manufacturers) with mylar and
other plastic films, which are easier to handle as they are not hazardous
materials requiring all kinds of precautions.
If you want to make a cellulose nitrate coating, be sure you do it in a
fume hood (ether is an anesthetic, as you know) with a great big fire
extinguisher handy.
Sil Horwitz, FPSA
Technical Editor, PSA Journal
teched@psa-photo.org
silh@earthlink.net
Visit http://www.psa-photo.org/
Personal page: http://home.earthlink.net/~silh/
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