From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

David Brenneman was not convinced:


> --- On Sun, 6/28/09, George Brock-Nannestad <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > ----- there is no infection - simply rinse the reel and can
> > with warm water.
>
> I've been told that it can pass from one film to another
> if they are kept in the same area - that's why archives
> isolate them immediately. It's not a real infection, but
> there is a chemical reaction going on that is "contagious".
> Is this not the case?

----- any source of acetic acid will catalyze this reaction. If you have an
archive full of di- or tri-acetate strip, and one is giving off acid fumes,
then you have a problem. Remove the source, and you have no problem. Rinsing
(or as Ted Kendall said, "sluice") is removing the source. The only problem I
could see is that if your reel (that seems to have desirable qualities) were
itself made of a cellulose acetate that had become affected. But then that
reel would be distorted, and of no use to you anyway.

I am curious: the film you have the remains of, is it a tele-cine, is it an
original print for scanning and screening in a TV station, or was it sold or
at least authorized as a show for use on e.g. ships or in the military?

Kind regards,



George