Nitrate Film Burn #2 in HD at Rayle Archive & Screening Room

A full 20-minute reel (2000 feet) of 35MM Nitrate Motion Picture Film manufactured in 1938 is burned at Rayle Archive & Screening Room (N.C.). This test burn was to demonstrate the way in which nitrate film will burn, both in a short open strip of film and in a tightly wound reel (mass) of film. As you can see, once the ’mass’ of the reel of nitrate gets fully burning, the output of burning gases accelerates to almost a ’thrust effect’ (similar to a jet or rocket engine) turned upwards. Film Archivist, Geoffrey Rayle, talks about the film, its nature, and the burn, both before, during, and after the actual fire. The film was burned in an ’open’ metal film storage can. If the can had been closed (or confined in an enclosure of some kind), the burn could have resulted in an explosion, rather than just a fast, thrusting burn. (The film being burned is Reel #2 of the 1938 feature film ’Lady In The Morgue’ .--’Corpse In The Morgue’.)