Sounds interesting but behind the WSJ paywall.
A story I find very interesting is the recovery of a large number of films found preserved under permafrost under a former ice rink in Dawson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson_Film_Find
A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
31–40 of 66 posts
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the mid-20th century film switched to modern plastics like cellulose acetate, and later PET (which are still quite flammable). But before that, it was the first kind of plastic invented -- nitrocellulose plasticized with camphor. Nitrocellulose is also known as gun cotton; it's literally explosive. It degrades over time, with the plasticizer separating and the film becoming brittle, eventually turning into a powde…
gun cotton and nitrocellulose are not "explosive." they both burn very easily and quickly, but they do not explode. explosions are another class of reaction.
You might mean that it does not detonate -- it does not. It is not a high explosive. But gunpowder (of both smoking and non-smoking varieties) is still generally considered an explosive. An explosive is something that can produce an explosion - a blast. And they can certainly do that.
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
gun cotton and nitrocellulose are not "explosive." they both burn very easily and quickly, but they do not explode. explosions are another class of reaction.
You might mean that it does not detonate -- it does not. It is not a high explosive. But gunpowder (of both smoking and non-smoking varieties) is still generally considered an explosive. An explosive is something that can produce an explosion - a blast. And they can certainly do that.
show me a video of a reel of old nitrocellulose film producing a pulse wave and I'll change my mind.
I was conventional munitions (non-nuclear) maintenance in the USAF. I am trained on these things.
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might mean that it does not detonate -- it does not. It is not a high explosive. But gunpowder (of both smoking and non-smoking varieties) is still generally considered an explosive. An explosive is something that can produce an explosion - a blast. And they can certainly do that.
show me a video of a reel of old nitrocellulose film producing a pulse wave and I'll change my mind. I was conventional munitions (non-nuclear) maintenance in the USAF. I am trained on these things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion
>An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel through shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower combustion process known as deflagration.
Doesn't have to be supersonic to be an explosion. This is a disagreement about definitions, not about the properties of nitrocellulose.
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
show me a video of a reel of old nitrocellulose film producing a pulse wave and I'll change my mind. I was conventional munitions (non-nuclear) maintenance in the USAF. I am trained on these things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion >An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel through shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower combustion process know…
I'm not talking about a shock wave, but a pulse wave. would you feel the event from a reasonable distance? true shock waves will generally kill you because they move faster than sound.
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#36It's great that they saved this one, but how many more films like this are rotting in vaults? > the museum has so many reels that it hadn’t paid attention to “The Oath of the Sword.”
Not even just films. The BBC was notorious for taping over old programmes to save money on tape and thus there's early episodes of Doctor Who that are lost along with some classics such as episodes of Hancock's Half Hour. I'd suggest that tapes should be digitised and that way they're far easier for the public to watch and categorise them so that other hidden gems can be found again.
Wikipedia has a whole fascinating article on lost (and in some cases recovered in peculiar ways) Doctor Who episodes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#37It's great that they saved this one, but how many more films like this are rotting in vaults? > the museum has so many reels that it hadn’t paid attention to “The Oath of the Sword.”
Not even just films. The BBC was notorious for taping over old programmes to save money on tape and thus there's early episodes of Doctor Who that are lost along with some classics such as episodes of Hancock's Half Hour. I'd suggest that tapes should be digitised and that way they're far easier for the public to watch and categorise them so that other hidden gems can be found again.
Doctor Who fans are probably the most aware of this. It’s hard to say which is the more stunning fact: how much of early Doctor Who was lost or how much of the lost managed to be recovered later.
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#38This is tangential to the article but when ever I read about a lost film being found there’s always mention of how it was found in a vault. I can’t help but always try to imagine what that is. Can anyone describe what these vaults are like? People can reference a data center but most probably have never been in one. However I’m very familiar with the slightly dusty smell, the whine of fans and HVAC, the odd people th…
Well the one I know of near me in Kansas has an article about it.[0] This one is in a salt mine as the salt helps keep the moisture out of the air. I could definitely imagine a recurring multi year lease expense like this being a blip on the radar for movie studios, so these things are mostly forgotten. If a movie studio goes out of business though, who know what happens to these films? I’d imagine that’s how movies…
> This one is in a salt mine as the salt helps keep the moisture out of the air
As an aside, various salts are useful as humidity regulating agents due to their deliquescence characteristics. Different salts and brine solutions can be used to either pull moisture from the air, or to maintain a higher humidity.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/salt-humidity-d_1887.html
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not even just films. The BBC was notorious for taping over old programmes to save money on tape and thus there's early episodes of Doctor Who that are lost along with some classics such as episodes of Hancock's Half Hour. I'd suggest that tapes should be digitised and that way they're far easier for the public to watch and categorise them so that other hidden gems can be found again.
Are you willing to pay for it? I've been involved in getting the archives of a small-time newspaper digitized and it's not cheap in terms of either time or money. There's a near-infinite amount of decaying and fairly rare analog media out there--and much that has been lost as companies have gone out of business, etc. It's not realistic to digitize all of it.
I'd be inclined to donate some CPU/HDD but I'm not paying for the copyright.
Re: A 1914 silent film considered lost was rescued from a vault
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might mean that it does not detonate -- it does not. It is not a high explosive. But gunpowder (of both smoking and non-smoking varieties) is still generally considered an explosive. An explosive is something that can produce an explosion - a blast. And they can certainly do that.
show me a video of a reel of old nitrocellulose film producing a pulse wave and I'll change my mind. I was conventional munitions (non-nuclear) maintenance in the USAF. I am trained on these things.
Just confine a nitrocellulose reel in an airtight container. Ignite it. Enjoy.