The museum tests nitrate prints regularly for shrinkage — even just a 1% change in the length or width of a print make them un-screenable — as well as for various stages of decomposition.

“But nitrate film also had a problem in that it decomposes and the bigger problem was that it blew up. It was flammable,” he said. “We are lucky to still have a few nitrate prints that have ...

During the tour, George Willeman, who is nitrate film vault manager at LC, demonstrated what happens to nitrate film when it decomposes. He also deflated a few myths about nitrate, including one ...

Library of Congress vaults contain half of the estimated 300 million feet of nitrate film in U.S. storage. ... One telltale sign a film is starting to decompose: "It smells like wet dog." ...

It smells like nitrate that's starting to decompose. My colleagues feel it smells like a wet dog. When it gets very bad, it's more like if you took a dirty gym sock and put it in a glass of sour milk.

The Turner Classic Movie Festival in Hollywood built a booth to project old films on nitrate stock. A firewall was needed. Nitrate can catch on fire and blow up — just one reason it's no longer ...

Martin Scorsese’s meticulous and unsparing approach to filmmaking has made him one of the most acclaimed directors of all time. And in his New York screening room, it was quite clear that he’s ...

New film explores a stash of hundreds of silent nitrate reels found buried in the Yukon, revealing images that pulsate as if by the energy of a flickering heart Latest U.S.

But there's physical danger involved in nitrate film. It's unstable, combustible, and contains a substance that was also used in explosives. Kodak stopped making it in the early 1950s, ...