On 02/12/2019 08:26, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
I suspect that it is now not viable. I'm assuming this is early celluloid in
which case be very careful. I can remember many years ago now, a guy was in
the local press who was clearing out a property and found some old cine
film reels in the loft. He dropped on and it kind of blew up and nearly
burned the house down. I guess its Nitrate or something in the material.
Being a local paper, we never actually go the detail though.
It would be interesting to find out when film with dodgy materials in it
stopped being made and the decomposition modes of progressively younger
film.
Brian


See also Colin's post below, which contains more relevant facts. Cine
film is normally kept in aluminium cans which are just about air-tight,
so (from the contents reacting slowly with the original air) the oxygen
level inside may have been very low. That could give you conditions for
self-combustion for nitrate film if they are opened or damaged. Your
sheet film will presumably be in a cardboard box, with multiple
wrappings of thick paper. I would predict that oxygen from the air will
diffuse through all that fast enough not to give you any depletion.