X-Nico

unusual facts about nitrate film



The Flying Doctor

They cut through the steel door using an oxy torch – somehow avoiding igniting the highly flammable nitrate film inside – and loaded a truck with the contents to take away for disposal.


see also

BFI National Archive

The J. Paul Getty, Jr. Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, named after its benefactor, is the base for much of the restoration work, while approximately 140 million feet of unstable nitrate film and all the master film collection held on acetate or other media is kept separately at a BFI storage site at Gaydon in Warwickshire.

Film base

The year 1978 was particularly devastating for film archives when both the United States National Archives and Records Administration and George Eastman House had their nitrate film vaults auto-ignite.

Gaydon

A disused military base near Gaydon is also home to special vaults housing the highly flammable nitrate film elements of the British Film Institute's BFI National Archive, the world's largest archive of film and television.