Hi James and galoots---
  One of my college film instructors had the class over to his house
one evening for wine, cheese and chat. After we'd had a few glasses
he pulled out a reel of old nitrate film stock to show us how
flammable it was---he stripped off about three feet and chucked it
into his fireplace where it whooshed into flame and blinded us
all---a little like a photoflash going off----he pointed out that
there were about 900 feet remaining in the reel, and a typical film
of the 40s, when they quit using the stuff, had six or more
reels...most projection booths are still built to the standards that
arose from the near-explosive nature of the stuff, which was
projected by the way, in very close proximity to REALLY hot
carbon-arc-lamps.
  By some co-incidence, I'm going in a few minutes to the Jewel Box
theatre in Belltown, which for fifty or sixty years was the only
movie exhibition house west of the Missippi in which the patrons were
allowed to smoke.  The booth there is lead-lined and asbestos-lined,
alternately, and no one talks about that too much.
                best to all galoots. GAM in Seattle

ps---I don't think Celluloid is the same thing as nitrate film stock,
but I think Celluloid's what dice and billiard balls and were made of
for years.

--- James DuPrie <jduprie@c...> wrote:

> Random bit of trivia I picked up in my academic days:
> 
> In The Good Old Days, pool balls (like snooker, billiards etc) were
> made of
> nitrocellulose. It ahs really good elastic/impact/energy transfer
> qualities.... Of course, a particularly aggressive bit of English
> on just
> the right angle would occasionally cause a ball to sort of turn
> into a cloud
> of fine powder.....
> 
> I also used to use it to embed biological specimens before turning
> them into
> microscope slides. I played around with it some, and unless you get
> it
> *really* dry (like wash it in 100% non-denatured ETOH, then let
> that
> evaporate off in a dessicator), its almost impossible to get the
> stuff to
> ignote, let alone explode. Must be something in the formulation we
> used (ita
> was a particularly low viscocity mixture....)
> --JD
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oldtools-bounces@r...
> [mailto:oldtools-bounces@r...] On Behalf Of
> Michael D.
> Sullivan
> Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 2:14 PM
> To: Michael A Field
> Cc: Oldtools
> Subject: Re: [OldTools] Re: Shop Safety.
> 
> Nitrate film is made of nitrocellulose (which can be made by
> dissolving 
> cellulose -- wood fiber -- in nitric acid).  Another name for 
> nitrocellulose is guncotton, which is used as a propellant in
> smokeless 
> powder.
> 
> In other words, it burns REAL fast.
> 
> I don't think nitrate film has been used for consumer film for a
> very 
> very long time, if ever.
> 
> Michael A Field wrote:
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Alan Perreault" <alan.perreault@v...>
> > To: "Michael A Field" <michael.field@z...>
> > Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 11:14 PM
> > Subject: Re: [OldTools] Re: Shop Safety.
> > 
> > 
> > Mike, how do we know if we have nitrate film?
> > 
> > Al Perreault
> > Wachusett Galoot
> > Westminster, MA
> > 
> >>So be warned, if any of you happen to have any nitrate film
> laying around
> >>GET IT OUTSIDE, FAST !!!!!!.
> >>
> >>Mike Field.
> >>
> > 
> >
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> > 
> > Hmmmm......., well......., and remember I'm working on the
> assumption that
> 
> > any nitrate film you get hold of will be 35mm and probably be
> part of, or 
> > even a complete can, of film from an old movie which was shown in
> the
> local 
> > 'fleepit' back in the early days.
> > 
> > Nitrate is very easy to recognise because it is a lightish shade
> of brown,
> 
> > similar to the way paper turns slightly brown when a hot iron is
> run over 
> > it.        But if you are STILL NOT SURE if you've got nitrate
> just tear
> off 
> > a short length, and taking it outside well away from everything
> else, put
> a 
> > match to it, then DROP IT AND STAND WELL BACK - using this method
> YOU'LL 
> > SOON KNOW !!!!!.    {And realise why I'm warning you about its
> danger}.
> > 
> > Now just because you haven't come across nitrate film before
> don't fool 
> > yourself, there's plenty still laying around which usually only
> comes to 
> > light when an old movie house is being demolished and they find
> some rusty
> 
> > old film cans laying in the basement, or quite often when one of
> the 
> > projection people takes the odd can home - so it can be literally
> anywhere
> 
> > {collectors of old films being one source}, but the main thing is
> that the
> 
> > film can is almost always old and rusty {unless it was so rusty
> that
> someone 
> > has put the film in a new one}, so go by its colour.
> > 
> > Although I haven't used it for this purpose I would say that it
> would make
> a 
> > vey good fire lighter - and in a building housing several
> hundered cans of
> 
> > nitrate a VERY GOOD fire lighter - in such an event pray for the
> fire crew
> 
> > who has the job of putting it out, although if they are sensible
> they'll 
> > stand back and let it burn itself out.
> > 
> > Mike Field.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Michael D. Sullivan
> Bethesda, MD (USA)
>
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>
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> OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
> aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history,
> usage,
> value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of
> traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.
> 
> To read the FAQ:
> http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/faq.html
> 
> OldTools archive:
> http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/
> 
> OldTools@r...
> http://ruckus.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools
> 

...save the people from the worst of all tyrants, themselves.  
                           Robert A Heinlein

	
		
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