Editing Nitrocellulose (section)

=== Film ===
{{See also|Film base#Nitrate}}
[[File:Light box displaying a nitrate photograph negative panorama suffering from deterioration.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|left|Nitrocellulose film on a light box, showing deterioration, from Library and Archives Canada collection]]
In 1855, the [[plastic#History|first human-made plastic]], nitrocellulose (branded [[Parkesine]], patented in 1862), was created by [[Alexander Parkes]] from cellulose treated with nitric acid and a solvent. In 1868, American inventor [[John Wesley Hyatt]] developed a plastic material he named [[Celluloid]], improving on Parkes' invention by plasticizing the nitrocellulose with [[camphor]] so that it could be processed into a [[photographic film]]. This was used commercially as "celluloid", a highly flammable plastic that until the mid-20th century formed the basis for lacquers and photographic film.<ref name="Nitrocellulose">{{cite web |title=Nitrocellulose |url=http://www.dow.com/dowwolff/en/industrial_solutions/polymers/nitrocellulose |url-status=dead |publisher=Dow Chemical |access-date=2014-01-19 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170722052853/http://www.dow.com/dowwolff/en/industrial_solutions/polymers/nitrocellulose/ |archive-date=2017-07-22}}</ref>

On May 2, 1887, [[Hannibal Goodwin]] filed a patent for "a photographic pellicle and process of producing same&nbsp;... especially in connection with roller cameras", but the patent was not granted until September 13, 1898.<ref>{{US Patent|610861}}</ref> In the meantime, [[George Eastman]] had already started production of roll-film using his own process.

Nitrocellulose was used as the first flexible [[film base]], beginning with [[Eastman Kodak]] products in August 1889. [[Camphor]] is used as a [[plasticizer]] for nitrocellulose film, often called nitrate film. Goodwin's patent was sold to [[Ansco]], which successfully sued Eastman Kodak for infringement of the patent and was awarded $5,000,000 in 1914 to Goodwin Film.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kodak Concern to Make Big Payment to Goodwin Company |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/03/27/archives/eastman-co-settles-case-kodak-concern-to-make-big-payment-to.html |quote=A settlement has been reached between the Goodwin Film and Camera Company and the Eastman Kodak Company concerning the suit brought in the Federal District Court by the former for an accounting of the profits derived from the sale of photographic films prepared according to the patent taken out by the late Rev. Hannibal Goodwin of Newark in 1898. The details of it have not been announced, but it is understood to provide for tile payment of a large sum of money by ... |work=[[The New York Times]] |date= March 27, 1914 |access-date=2010-09-18 }}</ref>

====Nitrate film fires====
Disastrous fires related to celluloid or "nitrate film" became regular occurrences in the motion picture industry throughout the [[Silent film|silent era]] and for many years after the arrival of [[sound film]].<ref>Kahana, Yoram (2016). [https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/dangerous-beauty-nitrate-films-return-hollywood-thanks-hfpa  "Dangerous Beauty: Nitrate Films Return To Hollywood, Thanks To The HFPA"], online news article, Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) / Golden Globes, West Hollywood, California, published 9 November 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2021.</ref> Projector fires and [[Autoignition|spontaneous combustion]] of nitrate footage stored in studio vaults and in other structures were often blamed during the early to mid 20th century for destroying or heavily damaging cinemas, inflicting many serious injuries and deaths, and for reducing to ashes the master negatives and original prints of tens of thousands of screen titles,<ref name="Variety14a">[https://archive.org/details/variety35-1914-06/page/n87/mode/2up "Lubin's Big Blaze"], ''Variety'', 19 June 1914, p. 20. [[Internet Archive]] (hereinafter cited "I.A."), San Francisco, California. Retrieved 10 October 2021.</ref> turning many of them into [[lost film]]s.  Even when nitrate stock did not start the blaze, flames from other sources spread to large nearby film collections, producing intense and highly destructive fires.

In 1914{{emdash}}the same year that Goodwin Film was awarded $5,000,000 from Kodak for patent infringement{{emdash}}nitrate film fires incinerated a significant portion of the United States' early cinematic history.  In that year alone, five very destructive fires occurred at four major studios and a film-processing plant. Millions of feet of film burned on March 19 at the [[Eclair (company)|Eclair Moving Picture Company]] in [[Fort Lee, New Jersey]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/motography11elec/page/242/mode/2up "Eclair Plant Burns"], ''Motography'' (Chicago), 4 April 1914, p. 243. I.A. Retrieved 9 October 2021.</ref> Later that same month, many more reels and film cans of negatives and prints also burned at [[Edison Studios]] in New York City, in the Bronx.  On May 13, a fire at [[Universal Pictures]]' Colonial Hall "film factory" in [[Manhattan]] consumed another extensive collection.<ref>"'Movie' Films Burn With Edison Studio", ''The New York Times'', 29 March 1914, p. 13. ProQuest Historical Newspapers (hereinafter cited "ProQuest"), Ann Arbor, Michigan, subscription access through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/clipper62-1914-05/page/n97/mode/2up "Universal's Factory Gutted By Disastrous Conflagration"], ''New York Clipper'', 23 May 1914, p. 15. I.A. Retrieved 11 October 2021.</ref> Yet again, on June 13 in Philadelphia, a fire and a series of explosions ignited inside the 186-square-meter (2,000-square-foot) [[1914 Lubin vault fire|film vault]] of the [[Lubin Manufacturing Company]] and quickly wiped out virtually all of that studio's pre-1914 catalogue.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor20newy/page/1802/mode/2up "Big Fire At Lubin Plant"], ''The Moving Picture World'', 27 June 1914, p. 1803. I.A. Retrieved 10 October 2021. See Wikipedia page "[[1914 Lubin vault fire]]".</ref> Then a second fire hit the [[Thomas Edison|Edison Company]] at another location on December 9, at its film-processing complex in [[West Orange, New Jersey]].  That catastrophic fire started inside a film-inspection building and caused over $7,000,000 in property damages (${{Inflation|US|7000000|1914|r=-6|fmt=c}} today).<ref>"Fire Originated in Building in Which Films Were Inspected", ''[[New York World]]'' ([[Manhattan]]), 10 December 1914, p. 1. ProQuest.</ref> Even after film technology changed, archives of older films remained vulnerable; the [[1965 MGM vault fire]] burned many films that were decades old.

[[File:Lubin employees surveying destruction of film vault, June 1914.jpg|thumb|230px|right|[[1914 Lubin vault fire|Lubin film vault]] custodian Stanley Lowry (foreground) surveys the rubble after fire and explosions, June 1914.]]

The use of volatile nitrocellulose film for motion pictures led many cinemas to fireproof their projection rooms with wall coverings made of [[asbestos]]. Those additions intended to prevent or at least delay the migration of flames beyond the projection areas. A training film for projectionists included footage of a controlled ignition of a reel of nitrate film, which continued to burn even when fully submerged in water.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kermode |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Kermode |title=The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex |date=May 1, 2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ar1F5LVhLwcC&pg=PA3 |publisher=Random House |page=3 |isbn=9780099543497}}</ref> Once burning, it is extremely difficult to extinguish. Unlike most other flammable materials, nitrocellulose does not need a source of air to continue burning, since it contains sufficient oxygen within its molecular structure to sustain a flame. For this reason, immersing burning film in water may not extinguish it, and could actually increase the amount of smoke produced.<ref>{{dead link|date=July 2010}}[http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/ask-film-question/24900-flammable-film.html Interesting discussion on NC films.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217045028/http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/ask-film-question/24900-flammable-film.html |date=2014-12-17}}</ref> Owing to public safety precautions, the [[United Kingdom]]'s [[Health and Safety Executive]]  to this day forbids transportation of nitrate film by post or public transit, or disposal with household refuse.<ref>[https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg469.htm The dangers of cellulose nitrate film]</ref>

Cinema fires caused by the ignition of nitrocellulose [[film stock]] commonly occurred as well. In Ireland in 1926, it was blamed for the [[Dromcolliher#Dromcollogher fire|Dromcolliher cinema tragedy]] in [[County Limerick]] in which 48 people died. Then in 1929 at the [[Glen Cinema Disaster|Glen Cinema]] in [[Paisley, Scotland]], a film-related fire killed 69 children. Today, nitrate film projection is rare and normally highly regulated and requires extensive precautions, including extra health-and-safety training for projectionists. A special projector certified to run nitrate films has many modifications, among them the chambering of the feed and takeup reels in thick metal covers with small slits to allow the film to run through them. The projector is additionally modified to accommodate several fire extinguishers with nozzles aimed at the film gate. The extinguishers automatically trigger if a piece of film near the gate starts to burn. While this triggering would likely damage or destroy a significant portion of the projector's components, it would contain a fire and prevent far greater damage. Projection rooms may also be required to have automatic metal covers for the projection windows, preventing the spread of fire to the [[auditorium]]. Today, the [[Dryden Theatre]] at the [[George Eastman Museum]] is one of a few theaters in the world that is capable of safely projecting nitrate films and regularly screens them to the public.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nitrate Film: If It Hasn't Gone Away, It's Still Here!|url=https://protekvaults.com/nitrate-film-if-it-hasnt-gone-away-its-still-here/|website=Pro-Tek Vaults|access-date=11 March 2016|date=2015-06-04|archive-date=2016-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312004951/https://protekvaults.com/nitrate-film-if-it-hasnt-gone-away-its-still-here/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=About the Dryden Theatre|url=https://www.eastman.org/about-dryden-theatre|website=George Eastman Museum|access-date=11 March 2016|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312015938/https://www.eastman.org/about-dryden-theatre|url-status=dead}}</ref>  The [[BFI Southbank]] in [[London]] is the only cinema in the United Kingdom licensed to show Nitrate Film.<ref>{{cite web |title=All about... nitrate film |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/all-about-nitrate-film |website=BFI |access-date=5 August 2024 |language=en |date=26 August 2022}}</ref>

The use of nitrate film and its fiery potential were certainly not issues limited to the realm of motion pictures or to commercial still photography.  The film was also used for many years in medicine, where its hazardous nature was most acute, especially in its application to [[X-ray]] photography.<ref name="Nitrocellulose"/>  In 1929, several tons of stored X-ray film were ignited by steam from a broken heating pipe at the [[Cleveland Clinic fire of 1929|Cleveland Clinic]] in [[Ohio]]. That tragedy claimed 123 lives during the fire and additional fatalities several days later, when hospitalized victims died due to inhaling excessive amounts of smoke from the burning film, which was laced with toxic gases such as [[sulfur dioxide]] and [[hydrogen cyanide]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Brad|last=Clifton|title=The Cleveland Clinic X-Ray Fire of 1929|website=Cleveland Historical|access-date=2015-04-01|url=http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/573}}</ref><ref>Feinstein, John and Sharon Conway (1978). "Historic Film Lost in Blaze", ''[[Washington Post]]'', 8 December 1978, p. 1A. ProQuest. This article about the 1978 film fire at the National Archives warehouse in [[Suitland, Maryland]], describes some of the toxic gases emitted by burning nitrate film.</ref> Related fires in other medical facilities prompted the growing disuse of nitrocellulose stock for X-rays by 1933, nearly two decades before its use was discontinued for motion-picture films in favour of [[cellulose acetate film]], more commonly known as "safety film".

[[File:EYE Film Institute Netherlands - Nitrate film decay - 3.JPG|thumb|Decayed nitrate film, [[EYE Film Institute Netherlands]]]]