nitrate film
Early cinema stock
Nitrate film is motion picture film made with a cellulose nitrate base, used from cinema's invention through the early 1950s.
The material is notoriously unstable—highly flammable, prone to spontaneous combustion, and chemically degrading over time.
Many early films have been lost to nitrate fires or decomposition.
Film archives maintain special storage conditions for surviving nitrate prints: The museum keeps its nitrate film in cold vaults.
- early cinemaMotion pictures' first decades
- fire hazardsSources of potential burning
- silent filmsMovies without soundtracks
- silent eraFilmmaking before talkies
- silver screenFilm industry metonym
motion picture · celluloid · vinegar · 35mm · combustion · chemical reactivity · vintage photography · preservation techniques · safety protocols · historical artifacts · flammable · canister · volatile substance · artistic legacy · shrinkage · cultural heritage · polymer · projector
- Silent Filmsilent films, silent era, silent comedy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton
- early cinemakinetoscope, cinematograph, bioscope, nickelodeon, celluloid
- film archivesvideo archives, archival footage, cinematheques, celluloid, negatives
- film photographycamera, lens, negatives, slides, negative
- photosensitive materialsphotographic paper, photographic plate, photo emulsion, photo paper, photosensitive
- lost filmsfragment
nitrate filmpermanent records